"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - Crown of Empire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yarbro Chelsea Quinn)

her brain, she became efficient, doing almost by
rote the things she had been taught since she was
a child. When she was young, the drills for this
eventuality had been a game. She had enjoyed
out-thinking the evil rebels who strove to endan-
ger the High Secretary. It would have been
comforting to make herself believe it was still a
game. But this time she knew she would not be
permitted to ask for time out.


She resisted her first impulse, to go to the win-
dow, knowing that could expose her to discovery
and attack. She moved quickly to the inner wall
of the reception room. Against the wall was a
massive Neo-Empire Revivalist writing table,
with thin, spiral legs atop traditional crocodile
feet, all in gold. The writing surface was a vast
expanse of malachite, edged in beveled gold
work. Seating herself, Tira toggled two hidden
levers in the table. The green surface lifted up
and back, revealing Tira's internal security holo-
gram station.


On the loveseat Cousin Helga was fanning
herself with an infopak, heedless of the damage
she might be inflicting on the contents of the
tamper-sensitive device. She had unfastened the
silver-net fichu around her neck and given it to
one of the three servobots who tended to the
needs of Tira's visitors.


At her desk, Tira was trying the fourth of
twelve sets of codes that might show her what
was happening in her father's apartments. Nor-
mally it didn't matter that his quarters were two
towers away from her, accessible only by a maze
of corridors. "It's wrong," she muttered, her
attractive face marked by worry and the first real
touches of fear. She tried another, yet higher,
security code. Nothing. Again. More blankness.


After running through all dozen combinations
she was forced to admit that there was a black-
out on her father's apartments. With growing
apprehension, she tried to reach her brother s
suite, with the same results. Again she refrained