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Corporation 22
Your mother.Pominkas were such a well-established ritual that for Ansel all local jokes should have become familiar long ago, just another boring day at a boring job, but where there, over the years they only pissed off more and more, leading to new rounds of soul-searching, they say, you need to quit everything and think of something better to do.But what else can an expat do in the capital city of Moscow? Most of those whom Ansel managed to meet in the Lenin zheev bar or a couple of similar inconspicuous establishments “for their own”, one way or another worked in consulting and moderation, in other words, they worked in razvodyashy positions, in larger and smaller offices, mostly local unofficial representative offices of the metropolis, and then whoever is lucky.Working for pominkas was no worse than any other occupation, as always, it depends on the client. The main thing in this business is not to belong to one of the competing clans, which in the world of mutual responsibili
Corporation 23
And what is most unpleasant is a barely noticeable difference in the data, overlooking this is not a problem at all. But now this very problem confronted Ansel in all its unpleasant glory. Had he faced a common case of fraud with social capital, as often happens here, Ansel would have silently called the social police and all matters, let them sort things out among themselves, but look around, this is a rich, serious clan, why do they need these spillikins. The whole story was sharply overshadowed by big troubles, and Ansel did not need them at all.Without a robe, in a white shirt and skinny trousers, he could easily pass for the staff that ran around here with tablecloths and samovar. Here, a towel on hand, that's better. The main thing is not to catch the eye of these cute paunches, right? So, drone in your pocket, eyes on the floor and go-go-go. Some kind of ochrannick was standing at the elevators, but he didn’t even look in his direction, that’s fine.Only when the elevator habi
Corporation 24
The hermetic door jammed again.Yes, how is it. Groaning and groaning, Lindström pulled the groaning metal towards him. The exoskeleton feedback obediently reached the red markers and froze helplessly, howling in the ears like a siren. You don’t have to do that, old man, and you’ll ruin the equipment, and you’ll kill yourself, and as long as we need you alive.Remember, there was a case on Ceres, one businessman found a fragment on the site. Well, like a fragment - such a stone is two meters in diameter. Kamenyuka and kamenyuka, take in the convoy and drags to buy up, they are so valuable there. Just take that pebble and turn out to be the core of an impact asteroid, go and understand what kind of metal, 50 tons in weight. Pulls, pulls, can't pull. The delyaga was not at a loss, he tore off the fuses from the lift, the chamber was crazy, and in the end, he flew away with the tractor into free swimming. It was only on the third sol that they saw him through a telescope, knowing what ki
Corporation 25
This means that something even larger must be moving behind the self-propelled gun. Well, to hell with them, let's deal with the avant-garde patrol for the time being."Unidentified self-propelled gun, you are about to cross the territory of a private allotment, I order you to stop."If Lindström's going on the air had any effect on the intruders, they responded by choosing not to talk about it. The self-propelled gun continued to shove in azimuth without changing speed. And yes, she aimed precisely at the place of wealth discovered by Lindström. Would you like to understand how they guessed so? Is it really possible to guess from the ringing of a bent core sampler and from the cheerful cursing of an old hard worker that something unprecedented has happened, and now we urgently need to whistle everyone upstairs?Even if there is a self-propelled gun at the nearest bio-domes and someone very astute decides to wait all day for a signal “on horses”, even in this case, such a thing needs
Corporation 26
Stone guest, shake your handYou see, the palms, although torn,They hold a brush, its marbleIt seems hot, but it would be riskyBelieve him if told to me:Do not shake this hand even in the most beautiful dream.(Here and below, the author of the poem: Evgeny Fedorov, Tequilajazzz )The end of the iteration was approaching, and with it the resource of cleaning blocks was coming to an end. With each breath she felt how close he was to exhaustion. Traitor circles swam before his eyes, his fingertips went numb, his right leg tingled, large drops of sweat trickled down his collar.The latter was especially disgusting - the cassette for water recirculators was rotten yesterday, and since then sand has been poured in the mouth. If someone asked Autumn now what is more important to her, a sip of water or a breath of fresh air, she would probably think hard about what to answer.However, her brain by that moment, in its cognitive capabilities, was more like a half-finished scraps - the only
Corporation 27
Quickly fixing everything and quickly running her eyes over the rest of the code, Autumn, exhaling, again sent the pipeline to the queue. An attack of anger at herself even brought her to her senses a little, although the sweat again spilled in a sticky trickle down her collar.And then, why not be angry, she left her comfort zone, one might say, just to get some air, so here you go, after an hour she managed to be up to her ears in shit, and yes, on the back of a man, in general, unknown to her , whom she did not ask to save her at all, and who was, in general, to blame for all her current troubles.So she told him, even in flight, calling him an asshole.Hesperus, however, or whatever he was, was not offended.“And anyway, you were following me, creeping bastard!”And he did not deny this, nodding his sky-red visor for solidity.“If only it was about how bad I am. The people who slipped that message to you know something a little too much about me - that's already a problem. And if
Corporation 28
Before battening down the internal bulkhead, be sure to check the personal meter. And it’s not even about the upcoming problems with oncology, and not about the premature termination of the contract - “Yanguang Zituan”, of course, will not spend money on delivering your carcass to the home port, it’s much easier without any special honors to send you by a passing ore carrier that set off to Mother every fourteen days. No one cares that you die prematurely here, but you are responsible for expensive equipment.Fields inside the hull on the "Shuguan" automatic harvesting detects almost daily. Marks, cleans up, but where is the guarantee that on the way to the airlock you will not get an extra dose? And radiation is an insidious thing, it gives you the first thing in the brain. You haven’t felt anything yet, and there is no cognitive functioning, even under the transcranial stimulus technique, especially under it. So you, even without realizing anything yourself, are already incompetent.
Corporation 29
And then they climb to turn you over. And it looks like nothing special. Unless their shells are from Red, but the Yangguan ones will not be worse."Can you hear it now?"... who are you, I ask you?“We are who we need. Who are you going to be? Mikhail Panarin?Yep, that's what you told them. Although, on the other hand, they also have enough brains to figure out that there are not many other little brothers in Europe. So enough excuses, you already slept to the fullest.Well Mikhail, well Panarin. Let's let go!They chuckle, but the block is not removed.Here you just have to wait patiently. Either way, you'll be missed soon. And if they wanted to kill, they certainly would have killed."Misha, listen again, the last attempt."Sounds pretty menacing when you think about it. Only a voice for some reason, well, sympathetic or something."Minute. Quartet. Visor. Orc. Podcaster.What is he carrying?! And most importantly, he pronounces it so deliberately, with a recitation."Nineteen. Ei