"Paul J. McAuley - Winning Peace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

Rider Jackson said, “I guess you think you should have been sent home.”

“That’s what we did with our prisoners of war.”

“Because your side lost the war.”

“We’d have sent them back even if we’d won. The Alliance doesn’t treat
people like property.”

Carver was beginning to like Rider Jackson. He seemed like the kind of man
who preferred straight talk to evasion and exaggeration, who would stick to the truth
even if it was uncomfortable or inconvenient. Which was prob-ably why he’d been
sent to this backwater, Carver thought; forthright officers have a tendency to damage
their careers by talking back to their superiors.

Mr. Kanza said, “If my data miner hadn’t uncovered his service record and
traced him, he’d still be working in the pharm factories.”

Rider Jackson ignored this, saying to Carver, “You have a brother. He served
in the Alliance Navy too.”

“That’s none of your business,” Carver said.

“Oh, but I think you’ll find it’s very much my business,” Mr. Kanza said.

Mr. E. Z. Kanza was a burly man with a shaved head and a short beard
trimmed to a sharp point. He liked to think that he was a fair-minded, easy-going
fellow, but exhibited most of the usual vices of people given too much power over
others: he was arrogant and quick-tempered, and his smile masked a cruel and
capricious sense of humor. On the whole, he didn’t treat his pilots and engineers too
badly—they had their own quarters, access to good medi-cal treatment, and were
even given small allowances they could spend as they chosen—but they were still
indentured workers, with Judas bridges implanted in their spinal cords and no civil
rights whatsoever, and Mr. Kanza was always ready to use his shock stick on
anyone who didn’t jump to obey him.

Smiling his untrustworthy smile, Mr. Kanza said to Carver, “Jarred is two
years younger than you, yes? He served on a frigate during the war, yes? Well, I
happen to have some news about him.”

Carver didn’t say anything. He knew what had happened to Jarred, was
wondering if this was one of Mr. Kanza’s nasty little jokes.

Mr. Kanza appealed to Rider Jackson. “Do you know how long they last in
those pharm factories before they cop an overdose or their immune systems
collapse? No more than a year or two, three at the most. I saved this one from
certain death, and has he ever thanked me? And do you want to bet he’ll thank me
when he learns about his brother?”