"Zach Hughes - Mother Lode" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

The lawyer raised his eyebrows.

"Don't try to con me, my friend. I've been screwed by experts." She rose
to leave his office. "You may tell your client that I am considering his offer,
but that I would consider it more strongly if he added five thousand
credits to the price."

"I'm afraid that's out of the question."

"Tough titty, then," Erin said. She didn't ordinarily use spacer
vulgarities, but there were times when she found a bit of shock to be
useful, or, at worst, satisfying. "He's the one who seems to be eager."

She found herself on the approach to the aircar pads of the port,
cleared herself for landing, said to the Mop dog, "Now why the hell are we
here, partner?"

Mop didn't say. He ran ahead of her to greet Denton Gale at the door to
Gale's office. Dent had seen John Kenner's old aircar come in and was
waiting. He opened the door, lifted Mop, rubbed his chest, winked at Erin.
"The weather is a bit nicer than it was when you were here before."

She pushed past him into the office. He put Mop on his desk where the
little dog curled himself into a ball and took a little practice nap.

"Dent, did you talk with that old shipmate of my father's who came to
him with this tale about a gold mine?"

"Once or twice. He came by here with John a couple of times when they
were shopping for the Lode, asking me about computers and electronics.
He was an older fellow. At the time I thought he was a bit fragile to be
planning to go back into space."
 "Obviously you were right," she said.

He sat on the edge of the desk, motioned her to take his chair. She sat,
crossed her legs. She'd dug into a trunk at the house to find cold weather
slacks and had been quite pleased to find that other than a bit of rather
becoming tightness in the seat, she fit well into clothing she had not worn
since she was eighteen.

"Any particular reason why you ask?"

"Ummm," she said.

His face was haloed by backlighting from the windows. He was smiling.
He was one handsome son-of-a-bitch. She felt that sliding, melting feeling
and answered his smile.

"Not thinking of going out there to take a look, are you?" He looked
upward, making the standard physical reference to space.