"Timothy Zahn - Angelmass" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

across a ship berth disguised as an asteroid it would be a dead giveaway that the Pax had slipped in a
spy.


file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Angelmass.htm (10 of 374) [10/18/2004 3:37:36 PM]
Angelmass

And with that chore out of the way, the ship was back on automatic, where it would remain until
they reached Lorelei. Keying one of the displays for a continual status report on his course, Kosta
returned to his reading. The data pack Lleshi had sent down to him was far more extensive than he'd
expected, and it was going to be a bit of a push to get it all read in the five days before planetfall.

But he would manage it. If for no better reason than that Telthorst probably didn't think he could.



The cocoon remained inert for six hours more, until Kosta's ship had passed beyond any theoretical
possibility of detecting a change in its status. Six hours of totally wasted time; but the vast network
of computers and sensors and fabricators built deep inside the rock was patient, and its designers had
considered it absolutely imperative that Kosta believe he had left nothing behind him but an empty
shell.

Quietly, stealthily, the network activated itself and began to look around. Even without its inertial
memory to guide it, the sensors would have had no difficulty locating the center of the net fields
which had caught the Komitadji.

The hive of Empyreal ships buzzing around the area would have been all the indication it needed.

Quietly, stealthily, the sensors reached out, delicately probing and studying. It would take
timeтАФconsiderable timeтАФfor it to achieve its programmed goal.

But the network was patient.




CHAPTER 2
"Your attention, please," the cool, middle-class voice came over the spaceport softspeaker system.
"The twelfth and final shuttle for the spaceliner Xirrus has now arrived at Gate Sixteen. All
remaining passengers should come to the check-in counter at this time for pre-flight confirmation
and boarding. Repeating: your attention, pleaseтАФ"

Seated at the far end of the waiting lounge, half hidden behind a large decorative vase, the girl
hunched a little deeper into a contour chair that felt too large for her and watched as the last group of
passengers gathered their things and walked over to join the line at the check-in counter. She
brushed the freshly blonded hair carefully away from her face, feeling a familiar tightness squeezing
her throat. In a minute she would have to get up and join them. And if Trilling Vail was watching
from hiding, like she was...

She took a deep breath, an acid tightness swirling in her stomach. It was the same feeling she always