"Timothy Zahn - Night Train to Rigel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

Night Train to RigeL
Timothy Zahn
ATOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK NEW YORK
NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that
this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the
publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment
for this "stripped book."
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this
book are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
NIGHT TRAIN TO RIgEL
Copyright ┬й 2005 by Timothy Zahn
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions
thereof, in any form.
Edited by James Frenkel
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Tor┬о is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN-13: 978-0-765-34644-5 ISBN-10: 0-765-34644-3
First edition: October 2005
First mass market edition: October 2006
Printed in the United States of America
0987654321

For
Pastor Rick House
who has helped keep me
on the rails

ONE :
He was leaning against the side of an autocab by the curb as I walked through
the door and atmosphere curtain of the New Pallas Towers into the chilly
Manhattan night air. He was short and thin, with no facial hair, and wore a
dark brown overcoat with a lighter brown shirt and slacks beneath it. Probably
no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, I estimated, me sort of person
you wouldn't normally give a second look to if you passed him on the walkway.
Which was why I gave him a very careful second look as I headed down the
imported Belldic marble steps toward street level. I had no doubt there were
plenty of nondescript people wandering the streets of New York this December
evening, but their proper place was the nondescript parts of the city, not
here in the habitats of the rich and powerful. There was already one person
out of his proper social position in this neighborhood me and it would be
unreasonable to expect two such exceptions at the same place at the same time.
He watched me silently from beneath droopy eyelids, his arms folded across his
chest, his hands hidden from view. A beggar or mugger should be moving toward
me at this point, I knew, while an honest citizen would be politely stepping
out of my way. This character was doing neither. I found myself studying those
folded arms, wondering what he might have in his hands and wishing mightily