"Charles Ingrid - The Sand Wars 02 - Lasertown Blues" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ingrid Charles)

facing you over a rifle tomorrow.

Purple said quietly, “The word at the bar is that it was a righteous shoot.
You won’t even be questioned. Tapes show what happened. Pepys has
already reviewed them and dismissed any charges.”

He’d forgotten how dry his mouth could get. “That’s good.” He needed
the Guard. Even the Purple had no idea of who he really was, where he’d
really come from—or what he really wanted. Only Amber had been let that
far into his soul.

“Jack,” Amber said softly. “Almost everyone is assembled down there.”

The Purple tapped his fingers again and checked his watch. “It’s about
time.” He looked at the young woman. “It’s a good thing Jack kept you
hidden from the other recruits, or Daku might have gone through you first.”

“If he’d tried,” Amber retorted, “he’d have been dead that much
sooner.”

The Purple’s silver-black eyebrows arched. “Jack, as her guardian, I think
you should watch yourself. Daku could have been hired by her former
pimp.”

Amber started. “Rolf wasn’t a pimp!”

“Svengali, then. We both know that Rolf’s connections are many. He
didn’t like giving you up, Amber, and despite the order from the Emperor,
isn’t likely to let you go.”

“He didn’t have any choice.”

“No, but I’ve been led to believe he had quite a stake in Amber, though
neither of you have seen fit to let me know what it was.”

Amber would not look at Jack, and Jack wasn’t going to betray her here.
She was deeply ashamed that her former guardian had subverted her
psychic talents into the ability to kill. She’d been trained subliminally to be
an assassin—but neither she nor Jack knew who Rolf’s targets had been, and
she had no intention of ever being used in such a way.

Jack stirred. He was more concerned about enemies buried deeply in the
Emperor’s organization. He already had one name and a face: Commander
Winton, the man who had ordered entire battalions to be abandoned on the
surface of Milos. “Daku could have been hired by someone trying to track
us down. It’s part of the charm of being a bodyguard—no wrist chips for the
master system. We operate outside the computer records and there’s bound
to be more than one of us with a colorful past.”

“Yes that’s a distinct possibility. There are no records of you—or your