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

when you left here, didn't you?"

"Turn the page," she said.

He turned the page, did a classic double take, brought the little book
closer to his face, whistled. His eyes showed his interest when he looked
up.

"By being more selective in gathering ores we can gross more than that
on the next load," she said.

"We?" He handed her the bankbook, sat down in the captain's chair.
"You have my attention."

She darkened the room, punched instructions into the computer. On
the main viewer the harsh light of the asteroid belt made Denton blink.
Mother sat alone in solitude. She had taken the holos on her last
extravehicular excursion from a distance of about a hundred yards. Large
and small chunks of space debris were visible, patches of glaring light and
inky blackness. The scene changed, shot from a holo on the extraction
arm. In artificial light the yellow gleam of gold made streaks on the rock
sides of an excavated trench. Close up shots showed the dramatic
lightning bolt of pure gold that Erin had extracted from the matrix rock, a
pile of pure nuggets next to it.

"So it was mining that your dad had in mind," Denton said.
 "It took me four months to fill Mother's cargo space."

"Sounds simple. Why do you need me?" He laughed. "Or is it that
you're overwhelmed by my masculine charm?"

She said stiffly, "I'm offering a straight business deal. One third of the
gross. Working partners. Twenty-four hour operations. You work, I sleep. I
work, you sleep. And that's it, period."

"What's the rush?" He pushed buttons, returned the holo to its
beginning, watched the tumble of the asteroids again.

"Are you interested?" she asked.

"I have a few things to clear up here."

"Time is important," she said. "How important are those things when
compared to one third of three payloads bringing in more than one
million credits each?"

"Not very, come to think of it," he said. "A million for me, huh? But why
just three trips?"

"I'll tell you if you decide to come with me."