"Timothy Zahn - Deadman Switch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

him."

O'Rielly's lip twisted. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you? You've been trying to get your sticky
little fingers on a Solitaire license for, what, eight years now?"

"Closer to ten," Lord Kelsey-Ramos said coolly. "Not that it matters. I'll be sending a courier over to
your office within the hour; kindly have copies of all your records and documents ready by then.
Good morning to you, Mr. O'Rielly."

He waved his control stick, and the display blanked. "And that is that," he commented, dropping the
stick on his desk and looking up at me again. Some of the thrill and triumph was draining out of him
now, leaving a measure of tiredness behind. "A very profitable day's work, I'd say."

I nodded, a neutral enough response. "You'll be going out to Solitaire yourself, I take it?"

He smiled. "Is it that—?" Abruptly, the smile vanished. "Is it that obvious?" he asked cautiously.

The paranoia of the wealthy. "It is to me."

A muscle in his cheek tightened. "Could it have been obvious to O'Rielly, too?" he asked.

I thought back, trying to remember every nuance of the man. "It might have been," I agreed. "The
shock of it all was wearing off at the end, and he wasn't ready yet to give up. Once he stops to think
about it he may be able to guess at least that much."

Lord Kelsey-Ramos pursed his lips. "Tell me everything else you got."

I went back through the conversation for him, giving as best I could the sense I'd had of O'Rielly at
each juncture. "Do you think he'll put up a fight over this?" he asked when I'd finished.

"Yes."

"A legal fight, or otherwise?"

I shrugged. The sense of the man on that point had been abundantly clear. "He'll fight to the limits of
either his abilities or his conscience. I don't know where either limit lies."

Lord Kelsey-Ramos gnawed the inside of his cheek. "I have a pretty good idea of both limits," he
growled. "Unfortunately. So. You think he'll figure me to go charging off to Solitaire to personally
stick Carillon's flag into the dirt, eh?" Gently, under his breath, he swore. "You know, Gilead, I've
waited for this moment for ten years now. Petitioned and maneuvered to get the Patri to grant new
transport licenses, pushed and prodded at companies who already had them—" he glared up at me,
discomfort flicking across his face—"and put considerable money into trying to find a substitute for
the Deadman Switch. I've earned the right to be the first man to ride a Carillon ship to Solitaire, vlast

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Deadman Switch

it."