"Steve Perry - The Man Who Never Missed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

He thought about it for a few seconds. It was no riskier than a lot of other
things he'd done. He said, "You ever hear of Renault?"

"Backwater world in the Shin System," she said. "I don't know much about it."

"It would be a good place to be in three or four years," Khadaji said, looking
past her around the octagon. "Somebody there might make you an offer you'd
find interesting."

The big woman looked at him carefully. "What kind of an offer?"

He shrugged. "It might not happen. A lot of things could get in the way. Let's
just say if situations go as designed, Renault could be a place for you to
stretch yourself a little."

"Um. Any particular place on Renault?"

"There's a small coastal town, Simplex-by-the-Sea."

She didn't say anything for a moment. Then, "But how could I leave you, Emile?
You need me here."

He smiled, recognizing the fugue in her statement. "I expect to be out of the
rec-chem business pretty soon."

"And on Renault?"
He sighed. "No. You won't see Emile Khadaji on Renault."

She considered that, and apparently decided not to ask anything more. "I'd
better get back to work," she said.

"Good idea. I need to check with Anjue and see how the crowd is building.
Later."

He watched her move away. She walked with a smooth, rolling motion that
bespoke her years of training and excellent physical conditioning. He didn't
really know Dirisha; she kept to herself, spent a lot of time working out in
one of the local dojos, and had no lovers, male or female, that he knew of.
But there was a strength in her beyond the physical, an essence of something
deeper. She could be a piece of it, he felt.

He walked to the main entrance of the pub, where Anjue and his three
assistants were working the line.

"Anjue. How is it going?"

"Ah, Emile, slow. I have only forty on my flat-screen, and three upranks have
called on the com to say they are coming at seventeen." He waved his hands in
that typical gesture used by natives of Spandle—a kind of outward loop with
each wrist. "The early darkness means a change in guard duty, so fewer troops