"Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

city's reins?'
Janequin steadied himself on the railing. 'Very nice, but I didn't come to sight-see, Calvin. Dan,
what were you about to tell me before we were so...'
'Rudely interrupted?' Sylveste said. 'I was going to tell Cal to pull the gravitometer data from the
escritoire, as he obviously has the means to read my private files.'
'There's really nothing to it for a man in my position,' Cal said. There was a moment while he
accessed the smoky imagery of the buried thing, the obelisk hanging in front of them beyond the
railing, apparently life-size.
'Oh, very interesting,' Janequin said. 'Very interesting indeed!'
'Not bad,' Cal said.
'Not bad?' Sylveste said. 'It's bigger and better preserved than anything we've found to date by an
order of magnitude. It's clear evidence of a more advanced phase of Amarantin technology...
perhaps even a precursor phase to a full industrial revolution.'
'I suppose it could be quite a significant find,' Cal said, grudgingly. 'You -- um -- are planning to
unearth it, I assume?'
'Until a moment ago, yes.' Sylveste paused. 'But something's just come up. I've just been... I've
just found out for myself that Girardieau may be planning to move against me a lot sooner than I
had feared.'
'He can't touch you without a majority in the expeditionary council,' Cal said.
'No, he couldn't,' Janequin said. 'If that was how he was going to do it. But Dan's information is
right. It looks as if Girardieau may be planning on more direct action.'
'That would be tantamount to some kind of... coup, I suppose.'
'I think that would be the technical term,' Janequin said.
'Are you sure?' Then Calvin did the concentration thing again, dark lines etching his brow. 'Yes...
you could be right. A lot of media speculation in the last day concerning Girardieau's next move,
and the fact that Dan's off on some dig while the colony stumbles through a crisis of leadership...
and a definite increase in encrypted comms among Girardieau's known sympathisers. I can't break
those encryptions, of course, but I can certainly speculate on the reason for the increase in traffic.'
'Something's being planned, isn't it?' Sluka was right, he thought to himself. In which case she
had done him a favour, even as she had threatened to abandon the dig. Without her warning he
would never have invoked Cal.
'It does look that way,' Janequin said. 'That's why I was trying to reach you. My fears have only
been confirmed by what Cal says about Girardieau's sympathisers.' His grip tightened on the railing.
The cuff of his jacket -- hanging thinly over his skeletal frame -- was patterned with peacocks' eyes.
'I don't suppose there's any point my staying here, Dan. I've tried to keep my contact with you below
suspicious levels, but there's every reason to think this conversation is being tapped. I shouldn't
really say any more.' He turned away from the cityscape and the hanging obelisk, then addressed
the seated man. 'Calvin... it's been a pleasure to meet you again, after such a long time.'
'Look after yourself,' Cal said, elevating a hand in Janequin's direction. 'And good luck with the
peacocks.'
Janequin's surprise was evident. 'You know about my little project?'
Calvin smiled without answering; Janequin's question had been superfluous after all, Sylveste
thought.
The old man shook his hand -- the environment ran to full tactile interaction -- and then stepped
out of range of his imaging suite.
The two of them were left alone on the balcony.
 'Well?' Cal asked.
'I can't afford to lose control of the colony.' Sylveste had still been in nominal command of the
entire Resurgam expedition, even after Alicia's defection. Technically, those who had chosen to
stay behind on the planet rather than return home with her should have been his allies, meaning that