"Williamson,.Michael.Z.-.Freehold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Michael Z)

for her, but she had no doubt Tom was correct. There were horror
stories of people being dragged in for even being "associated"
with criminals. But where could she go?

Just before she reached the door, Janie came out of the back
office. "Kendra, can youЧ"

"Sorry," Kendra replied, waving the folder, "I've gotta take care of
this for the lieutenant right now." The old trick of looking busy had
always seemed rather shallow before. It now had a whole new
meaning. She stepped outside, whipped her hat on and tried to
walk slowly to her car, as if she were running an errand. Unlocking
it, she climbed in and discovered an overnight bag on the
passenger seat. As she started the engine, she glanced in. Street
clothes, socks, shoes, underwear and some cash cards. Tom
must have used a security code to override her dorm room lock.
She hoped that wasn't traceable, but he was good at such things.
That had made her nervous, when she discovered he could crack
codes and bypass records. Now she thanked Tom silently while
backing out carefully. A wreck now would really be hell. Could this
really be happening? She had to believe him, but it seemed so
unreal.

The UN Bureau of Security was not known for its polite inquiries
into alleged crimes. If they believed a person was involved with
"improper activity" or "activity prejudicial to the public good," they
proceeded to investigate thoroughly. The accused was held
incommunicado, all assets seized and in-depth interviews
conducted with the accused and any family or friends who might be
involved. If they suspected any dissemblance, they could always
revert to the clauses that gave them authority to hold the accused
until they were satisfied. There were also numerous rarely
enforced laws they could invoke to continue their efforts. The story
was that they only used those tactics against someone they
couldn't prosecute any other way, but Kendra had recently come to
believe, in part due to vids Tom had shown her, that those tactics
were unfair and designed to make the prosecutors look good, not
do justice to the accused. She'd been creeped enough by his
near-sedition to stop seeing him. There were enough
antigovernment activists in America now without having to deal with
out-and-out traitors.

It had a whole new feel now, she reflected briefly as she drove out
of the logistics zone of the sprawling base. They thought she was
guilty. Several tens of millions of marks worth of property had gone
missing during the Mtali mission. She'd done the file search, at the
request of the chain of command, to determine how much. That
was the total extent of her involvement. She knew she was
innocent and they couldn't prove otherwise . . . or could they? "The
wicked flee when no man pursueth" didn't apply when