"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автора

hoping we would have a chance to speak, and here you arrive before I need send
for you."
Glad he had saved himself from being summoned, Vorru nodded graciously and
returned a smile of his own. "I have information I think you will find useful
and even pleasing."
Isard's scarlet diaphanous outfit rustled as she took a seat in a high-backed
chair. "Good news is most welcome, Minis-ter Vorru. Would you be seated?
Refreshment?"
There is something going on here I do not understand. Have the Ashern poisoned
her somehow? "Perhaps I will give you my report and you'll have a chance to
reconsider your offer, Madam Director."
Isard's eyes widened. "You can't think me so capricious that I could rescind my
offer because you've overestimated what you want to tell me, can you?" She waved
away any reply before he'd even made an attempt to open his mouth. "My news is
good enough to make me offer you something to drink. Give me your news, then you
shall have mine and you can see if you want to drink with me."
/ knew one of us would be surprised here, but I didn't expect it would be me. He
nodded slowly. "As you will, Madam Director. Our main problem in dealing with
Antilles and his people is that they are striking at us and running quickly
because there is nothing to hold them back. They have no attachments to the
systems they are hitting. We ar-rive, they launch proton torpedoes or concussion
missiles, then they scatter like shrapnel from a proton mine."
Isard nodded, her smile not having shrunk a millimeter. "This has been the
course of things to this point. I trust you have found a way to change this."
"Two aspects of it, yes." Vorru lifted his chin. "My net-work of spies has begun
to produce information. I have yet to find out what the location of Antilles's
base is. He and his people are being very cautious, but I have no doubt we will
discover it in time. Until then I have uncovered two very im-portant pieces of
information: Where they are getting their munitions and, more to the point,
where the next shipment will be placed in the hands of the Antilles group."
"Really?"
The hint of falsetto in her voice didn't escape Vorru, but he did not consider
it important at the moment. "It is true, Madam Director. A woman working for
Talon Karrde had previously been employed by Jabba the Hutt. Subsequent to his
death she spent a couple of years in abject poverty on
Tatooine. Karrde took her in and has helped her get back on her feet, but her
taste for fine things has never been satisfied- nor has her ambition. Karrde
appointed her to liaise with the Antilles people-Booster Terrik, in fact-an old
friend from Kessel."
"Fascinating. Karrde's name is not unknown to me, though I would not have
thought his organization of suffi-cient size to meet Antilles's needs."
"Carniss indicates Karrde's operation is larger than any-one suspects. Karrde
prefers to maintain a low profile to es-cape trouble with authorities. Booster
Terrik placed a huge order for munitions and equipment, which Karrde is meeting
in installments. Karrde's people are shipping the supplies to a rendezvous
point, then Terrik is taking them back to Antil-les's headquarters."
Isard sat forward. "Does Carniss know where that is?"
"No, but I have been given the location of the rendez-vous point. They will be
making the transfer in the Alderaan system."
"They probably draw some sort of ephemeral strength from visiting the site of