LE Modesitt Ecolitan 03 Ecologic Envoy

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small group waiting on the stage, that a tail was unlikely.
Back in the living room of his private quarters at the Legation, he first
dialled some juice from the dispenser, then settled himself into the deep
chair facing the window. He felt more at ease in the living room than in the
expanse of the official office of the Envoy.
People assumed that you had to get inside a building to find out what was
going on. Not always so. Sometimes a fairly good picture was painted just by
who came and went. Item: Very few military personnel arriving.
Item: Fewer still in uniform.I tem: Virtually all public access was by young
Imperials student age and on a continuing basis, as if by appointment.
Item: Military access more tightly guarded than anything else seen in New
Augusta.
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Item: No discernible patterns in sex of either military personnel or
students.
Item: Guards not onlytrackedloiterers, but maintained voicelessc
ommunications with the central communications point.
What conclusions could he draw? Despite the low profile the military seemed
to have assumed on NewAugusta, they possessed a great deal of.real power.
Further, the student appointments implied one of two things: either the
military career was respected and desirable or it was required of at least
some of the population. The lack of uniforms also intrigued the Ecolitan.
New Augusta, in spite of all the apparent freedom, was a tightly controlled
society. How tightly remained to be seen.
...XII...
The man in black stepped into the drop shaft, angled his body out into the
high speed lane, and watched the levels peel away.
Mydrahad told him what she thought of the idea. After someone shot at
you...going out alone, unescorted.Lord Whaler, is foolish. Very foolish.
Foolish perhaps, but a Marine escort with crimson uniforms would have been
like dropping a location flare.
On the way down, he smiled faintly as a Fuardian Military Attachetripped over
his dangling sabre and pitchedheadfirst into the slow drop traffic,. almost
colliding with aMatriarch from Halston.
Accord didn't have lift/drop shafts, or the towers with hundreds of levels
running from deep in the ground up intot he lower cloud levels. For the
scattered communities of Accord, such towers would have been an energy waste.
Harmony was the only city of any size throughout the Coordinate, and the
capital had fewer people than any single one of the New Augustan towers.
As the Ecolitan dropped toward the concourse level, he edged himself into the
slower lanes, finally swinging off onto the orangepermatile of the exit stage.
He walked briskly toward the private side of the concourse where the official
tunnel cars and diplomatic vehicles waited. His eyes never stopped their
continuous scan. His ears listened for any untoward sound. Lord Whaler?
called a young driver. From whom? he askednoncommittally, still scanning as
he approached.
LordRotoller at Commerce. She gestured toward the car and the seal on the
open passenger door.
As he bent to enter the vehicle, he checked the energy levels but could find
nothing overtly suspicious.
He settled himself into the overpadded seat as theelectrocougar dipped
noiselessly into the tunnel on its trip from the Diplomatic Tower to the
Imperial Ministry of Commerce. '
How long have you worked for the Commerce Ministry? he asked the driver.
Two standard years, sir.
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Like it do you?
It's part of training. If you're a student at one of the professional or
nonmilitary service schools, you're assigned a part-time job as well.
What school for you?
Government Service Academy.
A specialty you have, a favorite course of study?
Political theory's the most interesting. But I like economic history the
best. The young woman half turned in the seat, without taking her eyes
totally off the controls andguidelights. Do you think theEcologic Secession
was based more on the imperatives of Outer Rift trade or on the political
restraints imposed by the Empire?
An interesting question, temporized the Ecolitan. The factors which to the
Secession led as in so many conflicts were doubtless many. Some of them are
lost, I would suspect, and today scholars and politicians focus on what they
see as important, not on what those involved saw as important.
That's what ProfessorHar-Ptolemkin says, that we project our own motives
back onto history too much. The driver stopped talking, waiting for a
response.
Trade, the political reasons, the personal heritages, all factors have to be
considered. No one sat down and said,' For these reasons will we rebel.',
No...doubtless said they something more like,' We are tired of the Empire
and want to be free.' And each had a somewhat different reason.
Do you think they really knew that clearly what they wanted?
People say they know what they want, but often when they must choose, they
choose not what they asked for.
The student driver did not continue the conversation, and theelectrocougar
began to slow and climb. After a sharp turn, the vehicle came to a halt. A man
clad in a goldjumpsuit opened the door, and four others, wearing identical
metallic uniforms, stood by the underground carved stone portal, ramrod
straight in the artificial light.
At 191 centimeters, the Ecolitan didn't consider himself particularly tall,
but he stood nearly a full head above the five gold-suited guards. Two were
women, and all wore long knives in silver scabbards and silver-plated stunners
in gilded holsters.
A man and a woman near his own height waited for Whaler inside the portal.
Both were dressed in the maroon of the Imperial Commerce Ministry. The man
stood in front of the woman and, abruptly, raised his left hand in the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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