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com sensor; the pilot s etiolated face filled the screen.  I m faxing copies
of the reports to the Bridge; read them yourself, have them droid-delivered
directly to Seyirshi, he should still be in the Auction Room.
 Bad news?
 It could be interpreted as such. Wait half an hour before you send the droid.
Seyirshi might call here,
tell him I am meditating over the meaning of the reports and will speak to him
later.
4
Bernie s Hole
(renamed for the occasion
Koulsnakko s)
was a collection of hulks connected by flexible tubes in shrouds woven
from Menaviddan monofilament; the heart of the collection was an
ancient gutted worldship with its engines gone but its gravity webs intact and
operating at full capacity, powered by collector arrays aimed at the sun.
Onero Betalli stepped into the repairways between the worldship s inner and
outer skins, moved quickly along the catwalks until he reached the section
where the guest suites were. He counted the back panels, found the suite he
wanted and touched a tronkey to the access plate.
The man waiting for him was tall and broad, dressed in a robe with a heavy
cowl that hid his face, his only ornament a spiral of silver wire on an onyx
ground.  The suite is sealed to us, he said. His voice was deep, the slight
vibration on the sibilants the only clue to the de-gree of distortion
programmed into the privacy shield.
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 Very good. I ve brought copies of the reports, I thought you d like to see
them. It seems there is a pos-sibility of a very interesting capture....
FINAL PREPARATIONS 2
The Karidion Cluster
1
Karidion was a small compact star cluster, six stars less than a light-year
apart, same age, same size, as if products of some primeval stellar mitosis.
Among them they had a score of planets with seven at least marginally
habitable.
One of these had a name:
Hetohongya.
It was a world with sweeping winds and purple storms, saturated browns and
oranges, strong dark colors, tree analogs were low and twisty with maroon and
purple foliage, the grass analog was succulent and bladed, with vertical
stripes of crimson and ocher. Herds of six-legged ruminants grazed on
the crimson grass; bird analogs like feathered gasbladders drifted about them.
The only settlements were mining towns in mountain ranges like rotten teeth;
the largest of these, called
Te-yohdiac, was thrown up on the edge of an alluvial plain, a landing field
beside it.
On the day the
Cillasheg arrived there were twelve landers grouped in a small cluster in the
center of the field.
2
It was a proscenium stage with dusty worn curtains framing the front, curtains
that looked like they d been compressed from the dust outside and smelled
worse.
Shadith stood half behind the folds on the left side in-specting the
audience gathered in the hard wooden seats.
 Fifteen, sixteen, she murmured,  Twenty, twenty-three, twenty-nine,
thirty-four Dyslaera. One, two, five, seven, ten, no, eleven ops. Tough
looking lot, huh, Kikun? She shivered.  It stinks of rage in here.
 Leave them to Rohant, they re mostly his people; he knows how to handle
them.
 He is looking better, isn t he?
 Much better. Now that he has a legitimate target for his claws.
2
Rohant carried a chair to the center of the stage, plunked it down and sat on
it, leaning forward, his hands on his knees.  We ve got the name of the Hole
where the Auction will be.
Koulsnakko s.
Anyone know that one? Zarovan, you were working on the mere line.
 New one on me, Roha. We were  tieing a mere when we got the call to break
off; didn t want to
waste him so we brought him along. Zarovan swiveled round_  Sug-nom, go put
the question to the little

man, come back soon s you got some kind of answer. He produced a ferociously
amiable grin at his crewman s snort.
 Anyone else? No? Right. What we figure, Seyirshi got wind of us looking for
him, set up a cut-out.
There s a rendezvous three days from here, Laybogby s Star. The bidders are
showing up there and getting pilot flakes to take them on to
Koulsnakko s. If Zarovan s mere doesn t come up with coordinates,
Cillasheg is going to sit out there well beyond the Limit, waiting for a
bidder to show up.
When he s got his flake and drops into the insplit again, we drop behind him
and track him to the Hole.
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Siddown and stop smirking, Tasylyn. I know it s sup-posed to be impossible, I
know if we get close enough to read him, he reads us and drops a mine on us or
goes evasive and leaves us nose to nothing. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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