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

A smile like the ripple from a faint breeze washed over Chen-Lhu's chiseled features. He
glanced toward the entrance.
'Which man, my dear? There appear to be ... seven there.'
'Drop the pose, Travis.'
Almond eyes probed at her, swung back to the group at the entrance. 'That is Joao
Martinho, jefe of the Irmandades and son of Gabriel Martinho.'
'Joao Martinho,' she said. 'He's the one you said should've had full credit for clearing the
Piratininga.'
'He got the cash, my dear. For Johnny Martinho, that's quite enough.'
'How much?'
 'Ah, the practical woman,' he said. 'They shared five hundred thousand cruzados.' Chen-
Lhu settled back on the divan, sniffed the pungent incense arising with the smoke from their
table's vent. And he thought: Five hundred thousand! That'll be enough to destroy Johnny
Martinho - if I can make my case against him. And with Rhin, how can I fail? This branco de
Bahia will be only too happy to accept a woman as fair as Rhin. Yes. We'll have our
scapegoat soon: Johnny Martinho, the capitalisto, the gran senhor who was trained by the
Yankees.
'The grapevine in Dublin mentions Joao Martinho,' Rhin said.
'Ahh, the grapevine,' he said. 'What has it said?'
'The trouble in the Piratininga - his name and that of his father are mentioned.'
'Ahhh, I see.'
'There are strange rumors,' she said.
'And you find them sinister.'
'No - just odd.'
Odd, he thought. The word struck him with a momentary sinking sensation because it
echoed the courier message from his homeland that had moved him to send for Rhin. 'Your
odd slowness in solving our problem is causing very disturbing questions to be raised.' The
sentence and the word had leaped out of the message. Chen-Lhu understood the impatience
that framed those words: discovery of the looming catastrophe in China could come at any
moment. And he knew there were those who didn't trust him because of the cursed white
men in his ancestry.
He lowered his voice, said, 'Odd is not quite the word to describe bandeirantes reinfesting
the Green areas.'
'I heard some rather wild stories,' she murmured. 'Secret bandeirante laboratories -
illegal mutation experiments ... '
'You'll note, Rhin, that most reports of strange, giant insects come from the bandeirantes.
There's your only oddity.'
'Logical,' she said. 'Bandeirantes're out in the front line where such things might occur.'
'Surely you, an entomologist, don't believe such wild stories,' he said.
She shrugged, feeling oddly perverse. He was right, of course; had to be.
'Logic,' Chen-Lhu said. 'The use of wild rumors to foment superstitious fear among the
yokel tabareus, this is the only logic I see.'
'So you wish me to work on this bandeirante chief,' she said. 'What am I supposed to
find?'
You're supposed to find what I tell you to find, Chen-Lhu thought. But he said, 'Why're
you so certain this Martinho is your target? Is that what the grapevine said?'
'Ohhh,' she said, wondering at the anger that lurked within her. 'You had no special
purpose in sending for me. My own charming self was reason enough!'
'I couldn't have said it better,' he said. He turned, beckoned a waiter who approached,
bent to listen. Presently, the waiter wove a path to the group at the entrance, spoke to Joao