"FWLS32" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

bathrobe. I tapped the keypad.

"Hey," Max grunted in my general direction, wandering in and
having a seat near the ashtray to light up. You've got to hand
it to Murfles, they really can cut through the smalltalk.

"I've been thinking about this selling thing," Max said,
breaking the end off a cigar. "You know MurfTech wants me to do
whatever it takes to keep from losing our branch office here."

"I was thinking about it too," I said, grabbing a chair and
turning it backwards to have a seat. (I'm too used to
barstools.) "The only problem is that Doc is sort of sour
grapes... if he convinces everybody that the Port isn't a good
source of income, everybody will vote to sell. These are Anarchy
Zone residents, after all, some of them Saren. We've got credits
in our blood, unfortunately."

"Don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but I try not to go after profit if it means
violation of ethics and all."

"Ethics are dead," Max concluded, puffing away. "We wanna
keep the port, we go about it by tradition. A-Zone tradition.
Port Hades tradition. None of this lollygagging and bickering.
We gotta go straight for overhandedness."

(Normally that'd be underhandedness, but out here,
underhandedness is so common that... well, you get the pun. No
need to belabor it.)

"I'm not sure... what did you have in mind?"

"I think a little investigation is needed into Mr. Holiday's
background. I figger that if he was revealed to be a Macroware
plant, everybody'll feel they've been conned and autovote not to
sell."

"What if he isn't?"

"Whether the evidence is there or not, my boys can find it,"
Max grinned.

"I don't know if that's the right thing to do."

"Come'n, Emerald, you've lived here since the Port was
built. I've only been here for a few years and I know how things
work. This is on the up and up as far as typical business
concerns. If Doc's got a problem with it, he gets a few of his