"Walter Jon Williams - The Crown Jewels" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Wal...Jon%20Williams%20-%20The%20Crown%20Jewels.txt (8 of 171) [10/16/2004 5:37:55 PM]
 file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Walter%20Jon%20Williams%20-%20The%20Crown%20Jewels.txt


"That coat is cut Empire-fashion. Are you with the Sinn
party?"

"1 travel alone, sir. On business."

Maijstral could think of no reply to that, and the man's
manner discouraged intimacy. He danced on.

"Drake."

"Nichole."

"Do you know that four hundred lives are lost annually
on Pompey, in accidents relating to the sea?"

"Ah. I see you have been talking to the man in uniform."

"He is full of facts, Maijstral. How long has it been
since I've actually heard a fact? Not a supposition, or a
rumor, or a piece of gossip, but an actual ctear-cut fact?
Four hundred lives. A fact."

"It is a fact that you are beautiful."

"It is a fact with which I am distressingly familiar."

"Pietro Quijano."

"General Gerald. Marines. Retired." The General was
a broad-shouldered man, erect, his face set in an expres-
sion of permanent fury.

"Your servant, sir."

"Ridiculous business, this dance. I've sniffed so many
dirty necks tonight it's scandalous. Yours could use a little
wash, by the way."

"Ah—I'll attend to it straight away. I say, do you know
who 1 just met? Drake Maijstral. You know, the Khovenburg
Glacier. The Swiss Cheese Incident."

"Maijstral? Here? Where?"

"There. In mourning."