"William R. Forstchen & Ben Ohlander - Wing Commander 05 - The Price of Freedom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forstchen William R)

at the vaulted ceiling of the Hall of the Great Assembly. The Great Hall's acoustics had been designed to
allow a speaker to address the highest galleries without electronic amplification. The acoustics also
concentrated all the sound in the room down on the dais.

The Senate was in full cry. Eminent men and women from across the Confederation shouted and
gestured at each other, each trying to be heard above the din. News services from a half dozen affiliated
worlds aimed pin-mikes at their representatives. Lobbyists and flesh pressers of a dozen stripes worked
the aisles, hobnobbing with the legislators who allocated power and, more importantly, money. Taggart
found the whole show cynically amusing, very pathetic, and utterly fascinating.

It occurred to him that he had come a long way since the war. Then, as "Paladin," he had plugged along
in silent obscurity, spying and doing one classified operation after another for king and country. He would
have vanished into obscurity had it not been for Admiral Tolwyn and his spectacular failure with
Operation Behemoth.

Taggart had put his own scheme together. Colonel Blair had gotten lucky over Kilrah, dropping the
Temblor bomb and knocking Kilrah out of the war and Taggart into the limelight. Taggart had come
away as "the man who saved humanity," especially as Blair had fled the public's adoration.

He laughed as he recalled how little time it had taken before the deal makers and the image shapers
came snooping after him. They'd helped him ride the rising tide of his fame to the Senate, then to the
Master's Chair. It was an almost unprecedented honor for a freshman Senator, especially as he'd refused
to open his black bag of tricks to engineer his promotion. His election had been done openly and
honestly, and it was one of his proudest moments.

Taggart glanced at his watch. The time for unstructured debate had finally ended. He took the heavy
wooden gavel and began to tap the handle against the clapper. The sound, electronically enhanced,
thumped out across the floor, warning the Senators that it was time to bring their remarks to a close. He
kept politely tapping for several minutes,then reversed the hammer in his hand. The second sweep
crossed the hour. Now he could get serious. He raised the gavel to shoulder level and brought it down
hard.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The heavy wood struck the clapper, resonating throughout the chamber. The
nearest Senators actually winced as the thrumming washed over them. Taggart continued to pound the
gavel until the sound diminished enough for him to be heard.

"Order," he demanded, "order."

The Senate quieted, the last diehards sitting only as Taggart threatened to whack the gavel again.

"You will all have the opportunity to voice your opinions on the occurrence on our Border Worlds
frontier," he said soothingly. Damn, Paladin, he thought to himself, you really are becoming a politician.
When did dead pilots and ambushed ships become an "occurrence"? He gritted his teeth, projecting a
false smile before he continued. "But we will first hear from the Commander of the Strategic Readiness
Agency. Admiral Tolwyn has graciously agreed to appear before us and provide us with his preliminary
assessment of the raids." He half-turned towards his guest. "Admiral Tolwyn."

Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn stepped up to the podium, resplendent in his dress uniform. Taggart noted that
the admiral had worn all of his decorations, gilding his chest in gold, silver, and bronze. It was an
impressive show, at least to the rubes in the cheap seats.