"Charles Ingrid - The Sand Wars 05 - Return Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ingrid Charles)

braced by his knees. "Don't kid yourself. I've given the emperor every
consideration. I haven't come this far to walk into his hands now. Or ever."

"I didn't mean—"

Storm waved his four-fingered hand. "I know, I know. But consider
this… with the Thraks infiltrating everything they can, at the behest of the
alliance, Pepys is a dead man. Dead if the Thraks turn against him, dead if
the Green Shirts can get their hands on him—dead if I expose him for the
ambitious traitor he is."

Colin had not meant to flinch, meant even less that Storm should see it,
but the clear blue gaze didn't miss much. He stopped, "I'm sorry, Colin."

"You've nothing to apologize for."

"I'd forgotten you and Pepys were close, once."

The older man scratched the corner of his temple, where his graying
eyebrow had recently begun to sprout. The irony of it—fewer hairs on his
head, more on his chest and in his brows—reminded him constantly of the
contradictions of aging. He dropped his hand. "That was a long time ago,"
he said.

"And yet you're not surprised at what Pepys has done."

"Of course not. He's the emperor, isn't he? I've seen few emperors, or
presidents, or even rebels for that matter, get where they are without
walking over a lot of bodies. And you are very naïve if you think
otherwise."

"What about you?"

They considered each other, then Colin smiled gently. "Unfortunately,"
he murmured, "you'd find a sacrifice or two under my feet as well. But as
few as I could possibly get away with—and no one who didn't know what
they were doing."

Jack inclined his head. "Fair enough." He took a deep breath. "When do I
get these reverend's robes?"

"Jonathan will bring them up. We've a few hours yet. Denaro will be in
full equipment, in the honor guard. He says to tell you that he won't be
using the dead man switch, whatever he means by that."

Jack considered the information with surprise that he quickly muffled. In
answer to Colin's raised eyebrow, he said, "If there's trouble, and a man goes
down, the armor is equipped to destruct if the man is pulled out before
disarming the suit."