"Michael Swanwick - Stations of the Tide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swanwick Michael)

homeliness into something profound. His was the sort of face that would seem ugly in repose, then waken
to beauty at the twitch of a grin, the slow wink of one eye. It could never have been hidden in the pink
roundness of the false Chu's face.
"Our intruder wore gloves because he was a magician." Lieutenant Chu wriggled her fingers.
"Magicians tattoo their hands, one marking for each piece of lore they master, starting from the middle
finger and moving up the wrist. A magus will have 'em up to the elbows. Snakes and moons and whatnot.
If you'd seen his hands, you'd never have mistaken him for a Piedmont official."
Bergier cleared his throat and, when they both turned to him, said, "With the technology you deny us,
a single man could operate this ship. Alone, he could manage all functions from baggage to public
relations with nary a crewman under him."
"That same technology would make your job superfluous," the bureaucrat pointed out. "Do you think
for an instant that your government would pay for an expensive luxury like this airship if they could have a
fleet of fast, cheap, atmosphere-destroying shuttles?"
"Tyranny always has its rationale."
Before the bureaucrat could respond, Chu interjected, "We've located Gregorian's mother."
"Have we?"
"Yes." Chu grinned so cockily the bureaucrat realized this must be something she had dug up on her
own initiative. "She lives in a river town just below Lightfoot. There's no heliostat station there, but if we
can't find somebody to rent us a boat, it's not a long walk. That'll be the best place to start our
investigation. After that we'll tackle the television spots, see if we can trace the money. All television is
broadcast from the Piedmont, but if you want to follow up on the ads, there's a gate at the heliostat
station, that's no problem."
"We'll visit the mother first thing tomorrow morning," the bureaucrat said. "But I've dealt with
planetside banks before, and I very seriously doubt we'll be able to follow the money."
Bergier looked at him scornfully. "Money can always be traced. It leaves a trail of slime behind it
wherever it goes."
The bureaucrat smiled, unconvinced. "That's very aphoristic."
"Don't you dare laugh at me! I had five wives in the Tidewater when I was younger." Bergier popped
another lozenge, mouthed it liquidly. "I had them placed where they could do the most good, spaced out
along my route distant enough that not one suspected the existence of the others." The bureaucrat saw
that the commander did not observe how Chu rolled her eyes when he said this. "But then I discovered
that my Ysolt was unfaithful. It drove me half mad with jealousy. That was not long after the witch cults
were put down. I returned to her that day after an absence of weeks. Oh, she was hot. Her period had
just begun. The whole house smelled of her." His nostrils flared. "You have no idea what she was like at
such times. I walked in the door, and she slammed me to the floor and ripped open my uniform. She was
naked. It was like being raped by a whirlwind. All I could think was that we must avoid scandalizing the
neighbors.
"It would have made a fish laugh to see me struggling beneath that little hellcat, I should imagine.
Red-faced, half-undressed, and flailing out with one arm to close the door.
"Well and good. I was a young man. But the things she did to me! From somewhere she had acquired
skills I had not taught her, ideas that were not mine. Some of them things such as I had never
experienced. We had been married for years. Now, all at once, she had acquired new tastes. Where had
she learned them, hey? Where?"
"Maybe she read a book," Chu said dryly.
"Bah! She had a lover! It was obvious. She was not a subtle woman, Ysolt. She was like a child,
showing off a new toy. Why don't we see what happens if, she said... Let's pretend you're the woman
and I'm the man... This time I'm not going to move at all, and you can... It took her hours to demonstrate
everything she had learned -- 'thought of' she said -- and I had a lot of time to mull over what I should
do.
"It was dark when I left her. She was sleeping it off, her long black hair sticking to her sweaty little