"Charles Ingrid - The Sand Wars 06 - Challenge Met" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ingrid Charles)

years in the making had ground to a halt. He'd been unable to access
Winton's secret files, but here, finally, was the data he needed. "All right," he
said. "What do you want from me?"

The informant named a figure and added, "And passage off-planet."

"Done. How do I verify what you're going to tell me?"

There was a verbal shrug in the pause that followed. Then the informant
said, "You know the subliminal programming. Trigger it. The assassinations
should follow."

"Good enough. Who is my missing weapon?"

"A street hustler named Rolf had a stable of kids working for him. Usual
scams. His contact with Winton was well-hidden. But the one you want is a
girl called Amber. She's not on the street any more and she never carried a
chip, but—"

"Never mind," Vandover answered coldly. "I know where to start
looking. You'll find your money at the usual drop." He cut the call short and
sat looking at the darkened screen.

All those years under his nose and he'd never even guessed. It made
sense to him now why Winton had not had her eliminated, making Storm
even more vulnerable. Winton had not known the targets or the
programming, but Vandover didn't doubt he'd been trying to ferret the
information out so that he could do the manipulation. Each of them had
kept secret from the other a vital part of the plan, forcing them to work in
tandem with one another, despite their differences.

Vandover stroked the keyboard lightly. "Winton, my boy, you were
clever." The hit on Amber would have to be canceled. Or perhaps not. A
postponement would suit as well. She was much more subdued since the
evacuation of Bythia. He would give his right arm to know what had
happened on that fringe planet, how Winton's plans had gone awry and
gotten him killed instead of reaching fruition. Perhaps she was no longer the
weapon she had been groomed to be. He had never sensed any psychic fires
banked within her, yet Winton had assured him the assassin being groomed
for them was a genuine talent, unlike those charlatans Pepys kept bottled up
in the east wing. So genuine a talent that the strike could be directly to the
heart or the brain… swift, unstoppable, and virtually undetectable.

He must investigate the information carefully before acting. A good place
to start would be the powerful loan maker, Sadie, who'd given the girl safe
harbor more than once. Sadie would cooperate. She was a businesswoman
skilled in the art of compromise, a reed that would bend in the wind rather
than be broken.

Vandover placed a call. He would stay the inevitable, but it would be