JК
Crashlander :: Нивен Ларри
Страница: 187 из 199Look at me! That thing rebuilt me from a severed head!»
«Buying up your trash is not exactly in my job description.»
«I'll sell you the location. You collect it and do with it as you will. One hundred thousand stars.»
Ander smiled at the number, conveying that it was too high even to be funny. He said, «They wouldn't let me smoke on the ship. Want one?»
«No,» I said, watching all my problems solve themselves. Well, half my problems. I could run clear off the planet while Ander worked at getting himself out of a cell. But he'd chosen the wrong restaurant, and I didn't believe it, anyway. He'd delayed too long; his body language was wrong.
I said, «Wait up. Don't light that.»
He sat there with the cigar poking out of the center of his grin. «I thought you'd let me do it.»
I said, «I toyed with the notion. If it was just a matter of you going to jail, Ritz, that might improve my leverage. I could make you an offer you couldn't walk away from.»
«You used to have the tobacco habit yourself.»
«But I gave it up to make Sharrol happy, and tanj if my sense of taste didn't come back. Ander, put those things away. Pacifica is a big spaceship.»
«Make you nervous?»
«Ander, don't tease the kzinti.»
The breath caught in his throat. The match and cigar disappeared with minimal motions of his hands. Then his head turned casually.
They looked at him, three big males with glossy orange coats and carefully closed mouths. Looked away again. They weren't doing anything threatening. Maybe they hadn't even noticed. Riiight. Kzinti living in Pacifica might never have smelled tobacco, but any who had would not forget.
Ander seemed calm, almost sleepy, except that his breathing was a little ragged and there was sweat trickling down his neck. The cigar had been for my benefit, but he really hadn't noticed the kzinti. Mankind had claimed this world, hadn't we? Kzinti didn't belong here, did they?
He sought the thread of conversation. «You don't know where Feather Filip is, and you last saw the magical autodoc a year and a half ago.»
«Exactly. I don't know that Feather hasn't been watching for me to come back and get it. There were lamplighter islands in line of sight. She could be watching for me with a pair of mag specs.»
«Or she could be anywhere on Fafnir. But if I find her, she can take me to the island.»
I kept silent.
«I can reach some funds. Tell you what,» Ander said. «Take my entire expense credit. Five thousand and change.
«Buying up your trash is not exactly in my job description.»
«I'll sell you the location. You collect it and do with it as you will. One hundred thousand stars.»
Ander smiled at the number, conveying that it was too high even to be funny. He said, «They wouldn't let me smoke on the ship. Want one?»
«No,» I said, watching all my problems solve themselves. Well, half my problems. I could run clear off the planet while Ander worked at getting himself out of a cell. But he'd chosen the wrong restaurant, and I didn't believe it, anyway. He'd delayed too long; his body language was wrong.
I said, «Wait up. Don't light that.»
He sat there with the cigar poking out of the center of his grin. «I thought you'd let me do it.»
I said, «I toyed with the notion. If it was just a matter of you going to jail, Ritz, that might improve my leverage. I could make you an offer you couldn't walk away from.»
«You used to have the tobacco habit yourself.»
«But I gave it up to make Sharrol happy, and tanj if my sense of taste didn't come back. Ander, put those things away. Pacifica is a big spaceship.»
«Make you nervous?»
«Ander, don't tease the kzinti.»
The breath caught in his throat. The match and cigar disappeared with minimal motions of his hands. Then his head turned casually.
They looked at him, three big males with glossy orange coats and carefully closed mouths. Looked away again. They weren't doing anything threatening. Maybe they hadn't even noticed. Riiight. Kzinti living in Pacifica might never have smelled tobacco, but any who had would not forget.
Ander seemed calm, almost sleepy, except that his breathing was a little ragged and there was sweat trickling down his neck. The cigar had been for my benefit, but he really hadn't noticed the kzinti. Mankind had claimed this world, hadn't we? Kzinti didn't belong here, did they?
He sought the thread of conversation. «You don't know where Feather Filip is, and you last saw the magical autodoc a year and a half ago.»
«Exactly. I don't know that Feather hasn't been watching for me to come back and get it. There were lamplighter islands in line of sight. She could be watching for me with a pair of mag specs.»
«Or she could be anywhere on Fafnir. But if I find her, she can take me to the island.»
I kept silent.
«I can reach some funds. Tell you what,» Ander said. «Take my entire expense credit. Five thousand and change.