"Mike Resnick - Velvet Comet 2 - Eros At Zenith" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

compendium of the finest shops and boutiques, of gourmet restaurants and elegant
lounges, while it boasted a fabulous casino and a score of other entertainments, it was
first and foremost a brothel.

And it was the brothel, and the promises of secret delights that it proffered, that enticed
its select clientele out to the Comet . They came from Deluros VIII and a thousand nearby
and distant worlds. Money was no object to these men and women; they came to play,
and to relax, and to indulge.

And one of them came to kill.



Chapter 1

"Name?"
Crane stared impatiently at the security woman.
"You know perfectly well who I am."
"I'm sorry, sir," she persisted. "But I can't pass you through the airlock unless you tell me
your name."
Crane looked briefly at the other people lined up behind him, shrugged, and turned
back to the security woman. "Andrew Jackson Crane," he said at last.
"Point of origin?"
"Deluros VIII."
"Thank you, Mr. Crane," she said, looking down at her computer. "Your voiceprint has
been cleared and you are free to enter the Comet ."
"Fine. What do I do now?"
"Step through into the Mall. I have been informed that someone will be waiting for you."
Crane grunted an acknowledgement and walked out into the Mall, the opulent two-mile
long row of shops and boutiques that formed the bar between the two bells of the Velvet
Comet . There was a strip of parquet flooring some sixty feet wide running down the
entire length of it, which in turn was flanked by two slidewalks that slowly moved past
the shops.
"Mr. Crane?"
Crane turned and found himself facing a short, rather stocky man dressed in the green
uniform of the Comet's security crew.
"Yes?"
"My name is Paxton Oglevie," said the man. "My instructions are to take you to see the
body."
Crane frowned. "And who gave you those instructions?"
"The Chief of Security, sir."
"Why isn't he here to greet me himself?" demanded Crane.
"Herself ," corrected Oglevie. "I really couldn't say, sir."
"Well, I could. She may not like the fact that I've been put in charge of this case, but
that's no excuse for her not to be here." He paused. "Where's the body now?"
"In the hospital."
"Where's that?"
"About half a mile to your left, sir."
Crane looked down the Mall in the direction indicated. "Don't you have an infirmary in
the crew's quarters?"