SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 59:
Mahler ignored them both and didn't even blink at Fallert. "I didn't expect you so quickly," he said. "Where are your troops?"
"At present they're in Ollarville," the Councilor said, "but–"
"Ollarville!" Mahler said. "What bloody good is that? How quick can you get them here?"
1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 77:
CHAPTER 28
Rome
His Holiness stood at the open window. Very little of St. Peter's Square could be seen from that window—there was a builders' scaffold in the way—but the sounds of riot and disorder were very much to be heard. Much less than they had been in the hours after midnight, but still there.
SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 58:
As Adele stretched, working out stiffness from the long ride, Hogg called to Tovera, "You want to stay with the car or shall I?"
"You're the sturdy outdoorsman, Hogg," Tovera said. "Besides, that great clumsy impeller wouldn't be nearly as useful inside a building as my attaché case."
She tapped the case of pebble-grained black leather that she always carried. The small sub-machine gun nestled inside wouldn't show up even under a fluoroscope.
1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 76:
Frank shoved the broom across the floor with angry, bashing motions. They'd had maybe half an hour of quiet followed by the first sounds of trouble. The band had quit—half of them had gone off to join in the so-called fun—and when it was quiet, it was eerily quiet. Everyone who'd stayed behind had gotten a little bit subdued. Even the lefferti, normally a boisterous bunch, were hunched over their tables and conversing in low tones. Frank was making an early start on the cleaning once the patrons had been persuaded to shift in close to the bar. Some nights like this had been pleasant, convivial even. A few regulars, up half the night and putting the world to rights.
SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 57:
CHAPTER 16: Port Dunbar on Dunbar's World
Daniel slid back the aircar's roof panel as they cruised slowly down the center of Southern Boulevard. They were only thirty feet in the air and the apartment houses on the right side of the street were mostly five or six stories high. He wanted to be able to see their roofs.
"I wouldn't do that," Corius warned sharply. "Those tents down there and the buildings're full of refugees from the northern part of the city. You don't know how they'll react to a limousine. They might start throwing things."
"And they might start shooting," said Hogg. He was standing beside the driver to watch the left side of the boulevard. He held his impeller across his body, ready to shoulder it. "Which is why the master and me're keeping an eye out. Sir."
1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 75:
The embassy fronted straight onto the street, so there was no easy way to defend the building and still have the door open. The Marines on guard had come inside and barred the big double-leaf main door, and one of them was looking out of the spy-hatch at the street outside. There were four of them, all with their carbines at the ready, and Sharon could hear booted feet jogging into other rooms. The windows were shuttered, but to a determined man with a prybar they were unlikely to be much defense.
By now, everyone assiciated with Baen authors is doubtless aware that Jim Baen has suffered a stroke, and is in a coma. For information available, you should visit Baen's Bar at http://bar.baen.com and go to the waiting-romm conference.
In other news:
1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 74:
CHAPTER 27
Rome
The drive back from the Palazzo Colonna was anything but dull, Sharon noticed. Cities being what they were, pre-automobile, sound carried. The cool that came with the Mediterranean spring night let it carry even further. Somewhere, there was trouble. The roaring of a crowd, somewhere, and the sound of shooting.
SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 56:
Adele looked without enthusiasm at the landscape a thousand feet below. She didn't object to rolling plains and thickets of darker green shrubs at the bottom of the valleys, but neither did the scenery–any kind of scenery–particularly impress her.
She smiled ruefully at herself. She'd be more interested in this if it were imagery rather than what she was seeing through an aircar's window. But to really engage her, the landscape would have to be something that somebody else had asked her to research. Perhaps she could trick herself by telling Daniel to demand she gather information on the terrain….
SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 55:
CHAPTER 15: Dunbar's World
Daniel rotated the command console inward and smiled at his assembled officers. The Sissie's bridge was a tight fit even for the eleven of them, but Adele was projecting the address onto the display in each other compartment for the crew.
He remembered being surprised earlier in their relationship that she'd bent over her console while he was giving the ship's complement one of his pep talks. Of course she concentrated on her console: Adele preferred to get her information displaced by one or more filtering layers. It didn't mean she wasn't absorbing it.
Powered by WordPress