"Walter Jon Williams - Dread Empire's Fall 03 - Conventions of War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)

Those issued by the Records Office.

Sula had used her command of the Records Office computer to issue her team multiple IDs. At present
she carried the identity card of Lucy Daubrac, an unemployed math teacher evacuated from ZanshaaтАЩs
ring before its demolition. Macnamara and Spence were Matthew Guerin and Stacy Hakim, a married
couple, also from the ring. Being from the ring explained why they were new in the neighborhood.

Sula checked to see if a High City identity badge had been designed, but found that if it had, it wasnтАЩt as
yet in the computer.

As long as she was in the computer, she downloaded every file they had on High Judge Makish and his
family. HeтАЩd had a lackluster career at the bar, apparently, but his status as a Peer of the highest class
had eventually got him a judgeship in one of the lower courts. The arrival of the Naxid rebels had
resulted in his promotion to the High Court, where his sentencing of the two-hundred-odd loyalists to
torture and death had been his first official act.

She pictured Makish lying in his blood on the Boulevard of the Praxis in the High City. She could feel
the weight of the gun in her hand.

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruisw...pire's%20Fall%2003%20-%20Conventions%20of%20War.html (12 of 530)19-2-2006 4:05:31
 Williams, Walter Jon - [DEF 03] - Conventions of War



But who would ever know?she wondered. The Naxids were censoring the news. If she were to shoot
Lord Makish, no one would know but a few witnesses. And even if word leaked out, the Naxids could
claim that it was an accident, or an unlikely street crime, or hadnтАЩt happened at allтАжthere was no way to
tell the population that this was a military act, an action by an officer of the Fleet against a traitor and
killer.

Sula could feel the energy draining from her at this thought. The reason for the creation of the secret
government and its military arm was to let the civilian population know that the war hadnтАЩt ended with
the fall of the capital, that the legitimate government, the Convocation, and its Fleet were still active,
would return, and would punish the rebels and those who aided them.

The secret government had distributed its own clandestine newspaper,The Loyalist, sheaves of which
Sula and her group had humped up and down the streets of the Lower Town, leaving copies in
restaurants, bars, and doorways. Even that primitive form of communication was gone now.

Sula turned as Spence came out of their bedroom, limping only slightly on her wounded leg. She had
been shot through the calf during HongтАЩs ill-advised fight on the Axtattle Parkway, and was luckyтАФno
arteries hit, no infection. The swelling had finally receded, and most of what was left was stiffness. Sula
had prescribed Spence a regular routine of stretching exercises, and of walking back and forth in the
apartment to keep the wound from stiffening.

She hadnтАЩt let Spence leave the apartment, even though she could have walked through the
neighborhood with only a minimum of discomfort. Sula didnтАЩt want Spence seen outside until she could
walk normally. A limp attracted attention, struck the eye as awrongness. In fact, she didnтАЩt want anyone
on her team to attract attention, not when the situation was so unsettled, not when the attention might
come from the Urban Patrol or from an informer.