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

He broke off, took a deep breath. "And now I've got to stay here and duel with O'Rielly and the HTI
board instead. Thanks to you."

"You could ignore my advice," I reminded him. "You've done so before."

A touch of dark humor came back into his face, as I'd expected it would. "And usually wished I
hadn't," he pointed out wryly. "Besides which, what's the point of hiring a Watcher in the first place
if I'm not going to listen to him?"

"People have done stranger things to themselves, sir. Often even willingly."

His eyes flicked past me, to the door of my—to his mind—painfully plain cubicle. "And more often
done those strange things to others. Not willingly."

Punishing the parents fault in the children and in the grandchildren to the third and fourth
generation... "The training really hasn't been a burden, Lord Kelsey-Ramos," I assured him quietly.
"There's a great deal of beauty in God's universe—beauty that you may never even notice, let alone
be able to appreciate."

"Does that beauty make up for all the ugliness that's also there?" he asked pointedly. "Does it make
up for the fact that you have to strip a room practically bare to get a little relief from sensory
overload?"

To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one... "I do what I can with what I've been
given," I said simply. "In that way, at least, I'm no different than you."

He pursed his lips. "Perhaps. Someday you'll have to tell me—to really tell me—what it's like to be
a Watcher."

"Yes, sir." I never would, of course. He didn't really want to know. "If that'll be all...?"

"Not quite." His face tightened slightly, his sense that of a man preparing to deliver unwanted news.
"I concede that you're right, that I can't afford to traipse off to Solitaire right now. But someone
ought to go, if for no other reason than to let them know Carillon will be taking things firmly in rein.
It seems to me that the obvious person for that job is Randon."

He clearly expected a negative reaction, but I had none to offer. At twenty-five, Lord Kelsey-
Ramos's son still had a lot to learn about life, but he knew enough about how to handle people—his
own and others—to make a reasonable ambassador to a conquered firm. "I presume you'll be
sending a financial expert along with him?" I asked. "In case their records need looking over?"

"Oh, I'll send a whole slate of experts along with him—don't worry about that. Still, even experts
often miss important details... which is why you'll be going, too."

I took a careful breath, feeling my heartbeat increase. "Sir, if it's all the same with you—"

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Deadman Switch