"David Weber - Dahak 03 - Heirs of Empire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

human qualities of 'intuition' and 'imagination' remain limited. I have grasped—intellectually, I suppose you
would say—that human brains lack my own search and retrieval capabilities, but I occasionally overlook
their limitations. I shall not forget again."
The computer actually sounded embarrassed, and Colin shrugged.
"Forget it. It's more my fault than yours. You certainly had a right to expect me to at least read your
report."
"Perhaps. It is nonetheless incumbent upon me to provide you with the data you require. It thus
follows that I should inquire to be certain that you do, in fact, realize that you have them."
"Don't get your diodes in an uproar." Colin turned back to Ninhursag as Dahak made the sound he
used for a chuckle. "Okay, I've got it now, but I don't see anything about how we missed them . . . if we
did."
"The how's fairly easy, actually. Anu and his crowd spent thousands of years manipulating Earth's
population, and they had a tremendous number of contacts, including batches of people with no idea who
they were working for. We got most of their bigwigs when you stormed his enclave, but Anu couldn't
possibly have squeezed all of them into it. We managed to identify most of the important bit players from
his captured records, but a lot of small fry have to've been missed.
"Those people don't worry me. They know what'll happen if they draw attention to themselves, and I
expect most have decided to become very loyal subjects of the Imperium. But what does worry me a bit
is that Kirinal seems to have been running at least two top secret cells no one else knew about. When
you and 'Tanni killed her in the Cuernavaca strike, not even Anu and Ganhar knew who those people
were, so they never got taken into the enclave before the final attack."
"My God, 'Hursag!" Hatcher sounded appalled. "You mean we've still got top echelon people who
worked for Anu running around loose?"
"No more than a dozen at the outside," Ninhursag replied, "and, like the small fry, they're not going to
draw attention to themselves. I'm not suggesting we forget about them, Gerald, but consider the mess
they're in. They lost their patron when Colin killed Anu, and as Horus and I have been saying, we've
turned Earth's whole society upside-down, so they've probably lost a lot of the influence they may've had
in the old power structure. Even those who haven't been left out in the cold have only their own resources
to work with, and there's no way they're going to do anything that might draw attention to their past
associations with Anu."
"Admiral MacMahan is correct, Admiral Hatcher," Dahak said. "I do not mean to imply that they will
never be a menace again—indeed, the fact that they knowingly served Anu indicates not only criminality
on their part but ambition and ability, as well—yet they no longer possess a support structure. Deprived
of Anu's monopoly on Imperial technology, they become simply one more criminal element. While it
would be folly to assume they are incapable of building a new support structure or to abandon our search
for them, they represent no greater inherent threat than any other group of unscrupulous individuals.
Moreover, it should be noted that they were organized on a cell basis, which suggests members of any
one cell would know only other members of that cell. Concerted action by any large number of them is
therefore improbable."
"Huh!" Hatcher grunted skeptically, then made himself relax. "All right, I grant you that, but it makes
me nervous to know any of Anu's bunch are still around."
"You and me both," Colin agreed, and Jiltanith nodded beside him. "On the other hand, it sounds to
me like you, Dahak, and Gus are on top of the situation 'Hursag. Stay there, and make sure I find out if
anything—and I mean anything—changes in regard to it."
"Of course," Ninhursag said quietly. "In the meantime, it seems to me the greatest potential dangers
lie in three areas. First, the Third World resentment Horus has mentioned. A lot of those people still see
the Imperium as an extension of Western imperialism. Even some of those who truly believe we're doing
our best to treat everyone fairly can't quite forget we imposed our ideas and control on them. I expect
this particular problem to ease with time, but it'll be with us for a good many years to come.
"Second, we've got the First World people who've seen their positions in the old power structures