"Jerry Pournelle - High Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

water below. Each was ringed with white, then lighter blues fading quickly into the deeper tones
of the Pacific. There was no way to estimate the size of the islands. They might be tiny coral
reefs or the tops of the large mountains. One thing was certain. There wasn't much land you could
live on down there.
"That's good coffee, Courtney. Thanks."
"You're welcome. I should be thanking you. It would have been three weeks before I could get home
if you hadn't given me a lift." The view below was lovely, but Courtney had seen it many times.
She was still interested in the airplane. They were the only passengers in the lounge-this smaller
one and the big lounge beyond. She knew that Adams had brought others, but they had stayed on the
lower decks and she hadn't met them. His own assistant, Mike King, was forward with the pilots.
Aft of the lounges were other offices, laboratories, and several staterooms. Below them was an
enormous cargo space. Cerebrus was enormous, larger than any other plane in the world, and she
shared its luxury accommodations with one man. It was quite an experience. Courtney made good


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money at Ta'avu, but she wasn't accustomed to posh standards of living.
Adams peered forward to get a better look at the oncoming land, and Courtney remembered why he'd
asked her to sit with him. "The first group of atolls is undeveloped so far," she said. "You can
just see Ta'avu Station beyond. We'll be over it in a second."
Adams nodded and pushed back sandy hair with an impatient gesture. Except for the short nap, he'd
worked at something the entire time he'd been on the plane. He was always impatient, although he
didn't always show it. Courtney wondered what he did for relaxation. She noted that he wore no
rings. "Before we get there- I've wanted to ask about this plane. How could even Mr. Lewis afford
it?"
"He couldn't," Adams answered. "Some African government went broke having it built. Largest flying
boat ever constructed. We'd already put in the nuclear engines so we were the principal creditors
come foreclosure. Seemed cheaper to finish it for ourselves than scrap it."
"But why propellers?" Courtney asked.
Adams shrugged. He was no engineer. "Something about efficiency. Worked out well. They say it's
the props that let Cerebrus stay up for weeks at a clip. She's come in handy at that. We can use
her to look for ice floes and get our crews aboard first. Competition for good Antarctic ice is
stiff, and Cerebrus gives us a big edge."
"I'd only seen it once before," Courtney said. "When we were bringing in the whales."
Adams nodded. "Yeah, we'd never have been able to herd the beasts without the plane." He grinned.
"Ferrying pretty young managerial assistants home is just a side-line. Is that the Station there?"
"Yes." She leaned across to see better and felt him very close to her. He was handsome and
unmarried, in his thirties by his looks, but maybe a bit more. She liked older men. He had grey
eyes, and it was hard to tell what he thought because half the time he looked as if something
secretly amused him. He would be a very easy man to like. Her last romance had gone badly, and
there was certainly no one at the Station-in fact, there was never anyone at the Station. She
wondered how long Adams would be there. He hadn't told her why he was flying thousands of miles to
the Tonga Islands, and Mr. MacRae would be worried.
"The big atoll in the center of that group of three," she said. "The lagoon is about fifteen miles
across, and the Station is on the island at the fringe, the one shaped like a shark. The reactors
are just about at the jaw."
"Yeah." Now that she'd given him some idea of the scale the rest of the picture was clear. Ta'avu
consisted of seven atolls, but only three were in use at the moment. Nuclear General leased the