"Brian Lumley - E-Branch 1 - Defilers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

"Strike China," said Trask. "And probably Russia, too. Oh, Malinari's dollars would be welcome
there, for sure, but I have it on good authority that he wouldn't be. Gustav Turchin is the new
head of the Opposition, and I've already alerted him to the threat."
"Which leaves Italy, Greece, Switzerland, and South America," she said.
"Of which I fancy Switzerland," Trask nodded. "Or perhaps South Amer-

ica?" Concentration lined his face. "Switzerland has high mountains and it's cold. Quite
appealing, I should think, to someone-or something-from Star-side."
"Not necessarily," Millie answered. "I read your preliminary report on the Aussie job, and I was
at your pep talk. You make a point of saying that Malinari was where we would least expect to find
him. So why not the others? Personally, I would think that the most Switzerland has going for it
is its neutrality, its autonomy, and the fact that it welcomes people with lots of money. But
Greece and Italy aren't dismissive of high rollers either."
"This gets us nowhere fast," Trask stood up. "Or should I say somewhere slowly? Whichever, it's
given me a headache. And it's way past drinkies time. Also, I haven't eaten yet. You?"
"I'm trying to watch my figure," she said. "But-"
"It looks fine to me," he told her uncharacteristically. So uncharacteristically that he could
bite his tongue off.
"-But," she continued, "if you insist?" "I do."
Millie smiled and said, "Our first date!"
And as Trask put on a tie and shrugged into his jacket, he found himself wondering, Just bow long
have I been going blind, anyway?
For the "truth" of something had suddenly become astonishingly clear to him-which made him also
wonder how long she'd been hiding it from him.
Three years, maybe? Long enough for him to recover? Millie was thoughtful that way. The only
trouble was that Trask didn't think he'd recovered yet.
Not yet, no ...

OF STRANGE PLACES, SURVIVALS, AND SUPERSTITIONS
The term "E-Branch" wasn't known to the staff of the hotel downstairs/ to them, the upper floor
was the headquarters of a firm of multifaceted international entrepreneurs, whatever that was
supposed to mean. But Trask and his upper echelon were known to them, especially to the head
waiter of the excellent restaurant and carvery: the peculiar hours that the "upstairs people" were
wont to work-and at which they occasionally dined-sometimes made for problems in the kitchen. Such
as tonight. The hour was late and the kitchen had been busy all day.
Trask and Millie took a table in a spot favoured by Branch personnel: a slightly elevated alcove
surrounded by small palms in half-barrels, and varnished pine trelliswork interwoven with
imitation clematis and bougainvillaea. Sufficiently remote from the rest of the restaurant, it was
considered safe to talk business here/ but to be absolutely certain, Jimmy Harvey or one of the
other techs would eat here now and then and check the place for bugs . . . the electrical variety.
To date, they hadn't discovered any.
Seating his companion and then himself, Trask reached for a pitcher and poured water into two
glasses. He would have preferred to get straight back to their conversation, but decided to wait
until they had ordered. The short walk to the elevator and the ride down had provided an ideal
opportunity to get the blood flowing to his brain again and process Millie's information/ he felt


file:///G|/rah/Brian%20Lumley/Brian%20Lumley%20-%20E-Branch%201%20-%20Defilers.txt (31 of 263) [2/13/2004 10:10:51 PM]
 file:///G|/rah/Brian%20Lumley/Brian%20Lumley%20-%20E-Branch%201%20-%20Defilers.txt