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

"I asked if you thought you'd be getting a script for this," the other repeated. "You've just undergone
the finest intensive-training course money can buy. I'd have thought the absolute first thing they
would have beaten into you is that spies play nearly everything by ear."

Kosta took a careful breath, fighting against the old automatic submission urge. This man wasn't his
adviser, or his dean, or his department chairman. "I'm sure they taught me as best as they could in
eight weeks," he said. "Perhaps I'm just not good spy material."

"Very few people are naturally that way," Lleshi cut in, throwing a brief glance at the other man.
"But on the other hand, this isn't your average spy mission, either. As Mr. Telthorst has a tendency to
forget. For secret information, you send a spy. For secret academic information, you send an
academic." He favored Kosta with a tight but reassuring smile. "And for twenty years' worth of
secret academic information, you send an academic with a knack for digging nuggets out of froth."

"That person being you, we all hope," Telthorst said sourly. "Otherwise this whole thing will be
nothing more than a colossal waste of money."

Kosta gazed at him, again fighting against the urge to apologize. But at least now he finally had the
man pegged. "I take it, Mr. Telthorst, that you're the Komitadji's Adjutor Corps representative."

There was a faint sound from Lleshi that in a lesser man might have been a snicker. Slowly,
Telthorst turned his head to look at the commodore; just as slowly he turned back to face Kosta. "I
am not," he said, quietly and distinctly, "a representative of any kind. I am a fully qualified Adjutor,
authorized to sit at Supreme Council meetings and to advise the government on any and all matters
dealing with the financial and economic well-being of the Pax, or of any group, sub-group, world,
nationia, district, or sub-district within it."

His glare turned colder. "Including such totally inconsequential matters as the academic debts
incurred by tridoctorum students from small towns on minor worlds of backwater planetary groups.
Your debts, Kosta, and whether they will be canceled or not."

"I'm sorry," Kosta managed, wishing he'd kept his mouth shut. The veiled power lurking beneath
that icy disdain was every bit as intimidating as the Komitadji itself. "I didn't mean any disrespect."

"I trust not," Telthorst said. He looked again at Lleshi. "And I, in turn," he added grudgingly, "didn't
mean to imply you were unprepared for your mission. You understand that liberating the people of
this so-called Empyrean from their alien domination and bringing them under Pax enlightenment is
going to be a very expensive proposition. My job is the same as that of every Adjutor: to make sure
the Pax gets its money's worth."

"I understand," Kosta said, his reflexive fear fading into a rather annoyed nervousness. He was about
to risk his life in enemy territory, and all Telthorst could think about was how much money it was
costing. "I'll do my best not to waste the Pax's investment in me."

Telthorst's forehead creased, just a bitтАФ"I'm sure you'll do fine, Kosta," Lleshi put in before


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