"Jody Lynn Nye - Medecine Show" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nye Jody Lynn)

haze of rage. The three-demensional quality of the holotank made it seem as if all he had to do was reach
out to touch the characters. He wished he could. He would joyfully strangle the young woman who had
put him here. He snatched up a handy datacube to smash through the plexiglass front, and then
remembered what the prison guard had told him. The next time he destroyed anything in his cell, it
would not be replaced.
Not that the suite of rooms to which Verdadero was confined bore any resemblance to a cell. As
chambers of incarceration went, these were palatial. They were furnished expensively with every luxury,


file:///H|/eMule/Incoming/Jody%20Lynn%20Nye%20-%20Medicine%20Show(htm%20uc).html (30 of 210)15-8-2005 0:28:56
 Jody Lynn Nye - Medicine Show


every comfort, every need a rich man might conceivably desire to hand, except a latch on his side of the
door or a communications console that was connected to the outside world.
The elaborate combination unit that functioned as a video system, message player/recorder, music
console, and personal computer was not hooked up to anything but a power cable. Verdadero played
datacubes brought in that had been down-loaded for him, then carefully screened for content. Anything
he brought out of the cell was screened, and wiped if found suspect by his so-far incorruptible guards.
There was no appeal. His sentence was a long one, and his keepers often verbally wished he would
become used to the idea of continued vigilance and settle in to model prison life.
Verdadero chafed at any bonds, no matter how slight. By whatever favor his attorneys had gleaned from
the corrections system, his physical confinement was bearable. That he was unable to physically travel
the galaxy mattered little, but the incarceration of his mind and will irked him. That was the single bond
he endeavored to break. So far, he had been unable to circumvent the justice system's boundaries.
The video and its reviews, tendered to him after a gigantic bribe, hurt his massive ego.
"They will pay for this," he vowed. First the downfall itself: a financial setback he could handle; even a
loss of time was acceptable. He was a businessman, he understood failure of ventures, and the stripping
of planetary assets was risky at best—but the humiliation he suffered at the hands of that chit! That
child! Verdadero ground his teeth, and stared at the video screen. The screaming male carried away to
trial and impris-onment was him. No matter that they gave it another name, the soul was his. All his
pride had been stripped away.
"They're gonna be laughin' at you from here to the frontier, Jaci," his guard said impertinently. The
broad-faced redhead had entered silently behind him, had watched him clutch the datacube and release it.
Verdadero turned, and with incredible self-control, favored Duncan with a politely blank look. He
refused to rise to the man's bait. The guard was an amateur at torment. "I made too good a target, a
stereotype, Mr. Duncan. Even the mindless panderers of the entertainment industry couldn't resist that."
Duncan, deprived of his fun, made a sour face. "Yeah. You ready for your walkies, Jaci?"
Verdadero nodded. He glanced at the time displayed in the corner of his player screen. Just past the
lunch hour. Domitio should be in the exercise yard. His contacts on the outside were happy to take Mr.
Verdadero's money to keep sending mes-sages around the net. It was time to increase the reward on the
Taylors for subjecting him to such incredible humiliation. No, time to double it. With all the appearance
of docility, he preceded Duncan out of the cell and waited while the guard locked the door.
o3*


file:///H|/eMule/Incoming/Jody%20Lynn%20Nye%20-%20Medicine%20Show(htm%20uc).html (31 of 210)15-8-2005 0:28:56
 Jody Lynn Nye - Medicine Show