"Джон Варли. Платежное поручение(engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

"I'm not sure, now. Do you really look on Rethrick as a benevolent
institution, waging war against the Police? A sort of Roland at Roncesvalles
--"
"What does it matter how I feel about the Company?"
"It matters a lot." Jennings finished his drink, pushing the glass
aside. "It matters a lot, because I want you to help me. I'm going to
blackmail Rethrick Construction."
Kelly stared at him.
"It's my one chance to stay alive, I've got to get a hold over
Rethrick, a big hold. Enough of a hold so they'll let me in, on my own
terms. There's no other place I can go. Sooner or later the Police are going
to pick me up. If I'm not inside the Plant, and soon --"
"Help you blackmail the Company? Destroy Rethrick?"
"No. Not destroy. I don't want to destroy it - my life depends on the
Company. My life depends on Rethrick being strong enough to defy the SP. But
if I'm on the outside it doesn't much matter how strong Rethrick is. Do you
see? I want to get in. I want to get inside before it's too late. And I want
in on my own terms, not as a two-year worker who gets pushed out again
afterward."
"For the Police to pick up."
Jennings nodded. "Exactly."
"How are you going to blackmail the Company?"
"I'm going to enter the Plant and carry out enough material to prove
Rethrick is operating a time scoop."
Kelly laughed. "Enter the Plant? Let's see you find the Plant. The SP
have been looking for it for years."
"I've already found it." Jennings leaned back, lighting a cigarette.
"I've located it with my trinkets. And I have four left, enough to get me
inside, I think. And to get me what I want. I'll be able to carry out enough
papers and photographs to hang Rethrick. But I don't want to hang Rethrick.
I only want to bargain. That's where you come in."
"I?"
"You can be trusted not to go to the Police. I need someone I can turn
the material over to. I don't dare keep it myself. As soon as I have it I
must turn it over to someone else, someone who'll hide it where I won't be
able to find it."
"Why?"
"Because," Jennings said calmly, "any minute the SP may pick me up. I
have no love for Rethrick, but I don't want to scuttle it. That's why you've
got to help me. I'm going to turn the information over to you, to hold,
while I bargain with Rethrick. Otherwise I'll have to hold it myself. And if
I have it on me --"
He glanced at her. Kelly was staring at the floor, her face tense. Set.
"Well? What do you say? Will you help me, or shall I take the chance
the SP won't pick me up with the material? Data enough to destroy Rethrick.
Well? Which will it be? Do you want to see Rethrick destroyed? What's your
answer?"

The two of them crouched, looking across the fields at the hill beyond.
The hill rose up, naked and brown, burned clean of vegetation. Nothing grew