"Brian Daley "Han Solo at Stars' End"" - читать интересную книгу автора

The Wooldee growled. Both humans understood the expression of Chewbaeca's doubt that the information Rekkon wanted would actually be found in the net-work.
"The location as such won't be there, Chewbacca," Rekkon responded. "What Max will have to do is find it indirectly, just as you must sometimes turn your eyes away to locate a dim star, finding it out of the corner of your eye. Max will analyze logistical records, supply and patrol ship routings, communications flow patterns and navigational logs, plus a number of other things. We'll know where Authority ships have been stopping, and where coded traffic has been heaviest, and how many employees are on payrolls at various installations, and what their job categories are. In time, we'll find out where the Authority is keeping the mem-bers of what it has come to believe is a far-flung plot against it."
Rekkon got up again to pace the room briskly, clap-ping his hands with sounds like solid-projectile rifle shots. "These fools, these execs and their underlings, with their enemies' lists and Espo informers, they're creating just the sort of climate to make their worst fears come real. The prophecy fulfills itself; if we weren't talking about life and death here, it would make a grand joke!"
Hah was reclining against the wall, watching Rek-kon with a cynical smile. Had the scholar actually thought that people were any different from the Au-thority execs? Well, anybody who let his guard drop or wasted his time on ideals was in for just the same sort of rude shock Rekkon had gotten, Han thought. And that was why Han Solo had gone and would al-ways go free among the stars.
He yawned elaborately. "Sure, Rekkon, the Author-ity better watch out. After all, what's it got going for it except a whole Sector's worth of ships, money, man-power, weapons, and equipment? What chance does it have against righteous thoughts and clean hands?"
Rekkon turned his hearty smile on Han. "But look at yourself, Captain. Jessa's communication mentioned a little about you. Just by living your life the way you chose, you've already committed deadly offenses against the Corporate Sector Authority. Oh, I don't look for you to wave a banner of freedom or to mouth platitudes. But if you think the Authority's the winning side, why aren't you playing its game? The Authority won't meet with disaster because it abuses naive schoolboys and idealistic old scholars. But as it in-creasingly hampers intractable, hardheaded individ-ualists such as yourself, it will find its real opposition."
Han sighed. "Rekkon, you'd better take it easy; you've got me and Chewie confused with somebody else. We're just driving the bus. We're not the Jedi Knights, or Freedom's Sons."
What Rekkon's rejoinder would have been became
academic. The door-lock buzzed just then, and a man's
voice at the intercom demanded: "Rekkon! Open this
doorl"
With a cold feeling in his stomach, Han caught the blaster Chewbacca tossed to him as the Wookiee lev-eled his bowcaster at the door.
REKKON interposed himself between Han and Chew-bacca and the door. "Kindly put your weapons up, Captam. That is Torre, one of my group. Even if it weren't, would it not have been wiser to find out what was happening before preparing to shoot?"
Han made a sour face. "I happen to like to shoot first, Rekkon. As opposed to shooting second." But he lowered his weapon, and Chewbacca did the same with the bowcaster. Rekkon worked the door controls. The panel snapped up, revealing a man of about Han's height, but bulklet through the torso, with brawny arms and wide, blunt hands. His face was fine-featured, with high cheekbones and alert, roving eyes of a liquid blue. His hair was a long shock of bright red. His darting eyes found Hah and Chewbacca first, as his right hand made a reflexive spasm toward the thigh pouch of his coverails. But he arrested the mo-tion, turning it into the rubbing of palm against trouser leg on seeing Rekkon. Han didn't blame the man for being skittish at this point, with several of his team-mates already dead.
The man's mind worked quickly. "We're leaving?" he was asking, even as he stepped through the door.
"Presently," Rekkon replied, gesturing over to where Blue Max sat linked to the data system. "We'll soon have the data we require. Captain Solo there and his first mate, Chewbacca, will be transporting us off-world when we're ready. Gentlemen, may I present Tonal, one of my companions."
Term, his poise recovered now, inclined his head to the two, then went over to inspect Blue Max. Han fol-lowed; someone in this band might be an informer, and he wanted to acquaint himself with each one of them, to do all he could to safeguard himseft and his ship.
"Not very impressive, is it?" Term asked, staring down at Max.
"Not too," Han answered fake-pleasantly.
A nod from Term. "You think Rekkon'll find what he's looking for?" Han asked. "I mean, this long shot's your only hope of finding your folks, right? Or shouldn't I ask?"
Term fastened a frank gaze on him. "It is a personal matter, Captain. But since your own safety is at stake, I suppose you're with'm your rights. Yes, if I can't lo-cate my father and brother in this way, I'll have no idea how to proceed. We've fixed all our hopes on Rekkon's theory." For a moment he glanced over to Rekkon, who was showing Chewbacea features of the room's equipment. "I didn't throw in with him lightly, but when I saw that the Authority was dragging its feet in its investigations, and my own inquiries led me to hun, I knew I must commit myself to follow Rekkon's be-lief."
Torm's voice had drifted as his thoughts had. Now he came back to himself. "It's most unselfish, very ad-mirable of you, Captain Solo, to take on this mission.
Not many men would willingly risk-"
"Jet back; you got it all wrong," Han interrupted. "I'm here 'cause I struck a deal, Torm. I'm strictly a businessman. I fly for money and I look out for num-ber one, clear?"
Torm reappraised him. "Quite. Thank you for clari-fying that, Captain. I stand corrected."
The door was sounding again. This time, Rekkon admitted two of his co-conspirators. They were Trianii, members of a humanoid species of feline. One was an adult female, trim and supple, who stood just about the height of Han's chin. Her eyes were very large, yellow, with vertical slits of green iris. Her pelt, a var-ied, striped pattern along her back and sides, lightened to a soft, creamy color on face, throat, and torso front. It tufted out to a thick mane around her head, neck, and shoulders. Behind her curled and swayed a meter of restive tail, mixing the colors of her pelt. She wore the only clothing her species required, a belt at her hips to support loops and pouches for her tools, instru-ments, and other items. Rekkon introduced this being as Atuarre.
With Atuarre was her cub, Pakka. He was a mini-ature copy of his mother, standing half her height, but his coloring was darker, and he wasn't as slender or as graceful. He still had some of the fuzzier fur and baby fat of cubhood, but his wide eyes seemed to hold an adult's wisdom and sorrow. Though his mother spoke, Pakka said nothing. Then Han recalled Rekkon's say-ing the cub had been a mute since enduring Authority custody. Like his parent, Pakka wore a belt and pouches.
Atuarre pointed a slim, clawed finger at Hah and Chewbacca. "What are they doing here?" "They're here to aid our escape," Rekkon ex-plained. "They brought the computer element I needed to extract the final data. The only one yet to arrive is Engret; I couldn't contact him, but left a message on his recorder with the code word for him to contact me."
Atuarre seemed agitated. "Engret didn't make his check-call and didn't answer his com, so I stopped by his billet on the way here. I'm sure his quarters are under surveillance; we Trianii do not mistake such things. Rekkon, I believe Engret's been killed, or taken."
The leader of the small band sat down. For a mo-ment Han saw the strength and determination leave Rekkon's features. Then it was back, that special vi-tality. "I suspected that was the case," he admitted. "Engret would not forgo contact for days, no matter what. I trust your instincts in this completely, Atuarre. We must presume him to have been eliminated."
He had said this with absolute finality. This wasn't the first time he had come up against an unexplained disappearance. Han shook his head; on one side was the near-absolute power of the Authority, and on the other, nothing more substantial than friendship, than family ties. Han Solo, loner and realist, considered it a gross mismatch.
"How do we know he's what he says he is?" Atuarre was demanding, pointing to Han.
Rekkon looked up. "Captain Solo and his first mate, Chewbacca, come to us by way of Jessa. I presume we all trust her aid and counsel? Good. We leave as soon as possible; I'm afraid there'll be no time for lug-gage or arrangements. Or com-calls, for any of us."
Atuarre took her cub's paw-hand as Pakka studied Han and Chewbacca silently. "When do we go?"
Rekkon went back to Max, to find out just that. Just then the computer module's photoreceptor came back on. "Got it!" he chirped. A translucent data plaque emerged from the slot at the terminal's side.
Rekkon seized it eagerly. "Fine. Now we must match it against the Authority's installations charts-" "But that's not all," Max blurted.
Rekkon's dense brows knit. "What more, Blue Max?"
"While I was in the system, I monitored it, you know, to get the feel. This intrusion is fun! Anyway, there's a Security alert on in the building. I think it's directed at this level. The Espos are moving into po-sition."
Atuarre hissed and pulled her cub closer. Torm's face seemed impassive at first, but Han noticed a tic of anxiety along his jaw. Rekkon tucked the data plaque into his robes, and from them drew a big dis-rupter pistol. Han was already buckling on his gunbelt, as Chewbacca settled his ammo bandolier over his shoulder and threw the empty tool bag aside.
"Next time I fall for one of these tempting offers," Han instructed his partner, "sit on me till the urge passes."
Chewbacca growled that he definitely would.
Torm had taken a handgun from his thigh pocket, and Atuarre had produced another from one of her belt pouches. Even the cub, Pakka, was armed; he pulled a toylike pistol from his belt.
"Max," Rekkon said, "are you still in the network?" Max indicated he was. "Good. Now, look at deploy-ment plans for alerts in this Center. At what corridors, junctions, and levels will the Espos be stationed?"
"I can't tell you that," Max answered, "but I could clear a way through them, if that's what you want."
That grabbed Han's attention. "What'd that little fusebox say?"
The computer-probe elaborated. "The Security Po-licemen are all supposed to respond to alarms, it says here, and redeploy to cover any new trouble spots. I could just make enough alarms in other places and draw them away in different directions."
"That may not get them all out of the way," Hah pointed out, "but it could sure thin out the opposition. Do it, Maxie." Another thought struck him. "Wait a second. Can you fake alarms anywhere else?"
Max's voice burst with pride. "Anywhere on Orron III, Captain. This network's got so much capacity that they've hooked just about everything into it. Good cost reduction, but bad security, right, Captain?"
"No foolin'. Yeah, give it everything you've got:
fires in the power plants, riots in the barracks, inde-cent exposure in the cafeteria, whatever appeals to you, all over the planet." He was thinking that if there were a picket ship in orbit, she might also be kept busy by a rash of false alarms.