"Frank Herbert - The Green Brain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

they had in the Piratininga. Must've been ten, twenty billion of them right there.'
Dr Rhin Kelly had listened to the room for twenty minutes, her attention drawn more and
more to the tension undercurrents here.
'The new poisons work - yes.' That was a bandeirante at the table behind her answering
the problem of survivors - resistant strains. 'The mop-up is going to be brutal handwork,
just like China. They had to get down there and kill the last bugs by hand.'
Rhin sensed her companion stirring, and thought: He heard. She glanced up from their
table's amber smoke, met her escort's almond eyes. He smiled and she thought as she had
many times before what a distinguished personage was this Dr Travis Huntington Chen-Lhu.
He was tall with the deep, square face of North China topped by close-cropped hair that was
still jet black at sixty. He leaned toward her and whispered, 'Nowhere do we escape rumors,
eh?'
She shook her head, wondering for perhaps the tenth time why the distinguished Dr
Chen-Lhu, district director for the International Ecological Organisation, had insisted she
come here tonight, her first night in Bahia. She had no illusions at all about why he'd
ordered her to come down from Dublin: he obviously had a problem which required action
by the I.E.O.'s espionage arm. As usual, the problem would turn out to involve a man who
must be manipulated. Chen-Lhu had hinted as much during the day's 'general briefing'. But
he had yet to name the man upon whom she must ply her wiles.
'They say certain plants are dying out from lack of pollenisation.' That was a woman at
the table behind her, and Rhin stiffened. Dangerous conversation, that.
But the bandeirante directly behind her said, 'Back off, doll. You sound like that dame
they picked up in Itabuna.'
'What dame?'
'She was distributing Carsonite literature right there in the village behind the barrier.
Police grabbed her before she'd gotten rid of twenty pieces. They got most of it back, but
you know how that stuff is, especially up there near the Red.'
A disturbance erupted at A'Chigua's entrance, cries of 'Johnny! You, Johnny! You lucky
dog, Joao!'
Rhin joined the rest of A'Chigua's patrons in turning to stare toward the sound, noting
that Chen-Lhu pretended indifference. She saw that seven bandeirantes had stopped just
inside the room as though blocked by the barrage of words.
At their head stood a bandeirante with a group leader's golden butterfly insignia at his
lapel. Rhin studied him with sudden suspicion, seeing a man of medium height, swarthy
skin, wavy black hair; stocky, but when he moved there was grace. His body radiated
strength. The face was a contrast, narrow and patrician, dominated by a slim nose with
pronounced hook. There were senhores de engenho in his ancestry - obviously.
Rhin described him to herself as 'brutally handsome'. Again, she noted Chen-Lhu's pose
of disinterest, and thought: So this is why we're here.
The thought made her oddly aware of her own body. She underwent a momentary
revulsion at her role, thinking: I've done many things and sold many bits of myself to be
here in this moment. And what is there left for myself? No one wanted the services of Dr
Rhin Kelly, entomologist. But Rhin Kelly, Irish beauty, a woman who took pleasure in her
other duties - this Rhin Kelly was much in demand.
If I didn't enjoy the work, perhaps then I wouldn't hate it, she thought.
She knew how she must appear in this room of lush, dark-skinned women. She was red-
haired, green-eyed, delicate complexion - freckles at shoulders, forehead and bridge of
nose. In this room - wearing a low gown to match her eyes, a small golden I.E.O. badge at
her breast - in this room, she was the exotic one.
'Who is that man at the door?' she asked.