SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 72:
Central Haven on Pellegrino
The diesel engine was rumbling, but the barge that'd brought the new High Drive motors was still tied up to the Stoddard's outrigger. Though it wasn't time to set off, Vesey and the majority of the assault party were already concealed by the tarpaulin over the top of the barge's forward hold.
Tovera, Dasi and Barnes stood with Adele as she talked for the last time with Captain Evans, at the head of the short boarding bridge between barge and starship. The other officers remained aboard the ship, avoiding the knowledge of what was going on. Adele didn't mind the riggers' presence–she had nothing to say to the Stoddard's officers that the Sissies shouldn't hear–but the stocked impellers they insisted on holding might very well attract attention even at this hour of the night.
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1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 90:
CHAPTER 34
Rome
Frank heard Benito coughing in the dawn mist as he trudged along the street to get a look back at the night's work. He'd seen Piero handing around the handrolled cigarettes that Harry Lefferts had made popular, and had thought about trying to issue a health warning. The tobacco that they got downtime was way, way stronger and harsher than Frank remembered from back up time. When he'd thought about it, it had seemed hypocritical . He'd been thinking wistfully about having a smoke himself to calm his nerves and settle his stomach.
Just not of tobacco.
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SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 71:
CHAPTER 19: En Route to Dunbar's World
Woetjans was already waiting for him in the airlock, but Daniel spent a further moment on the hull to watch the heavens. They flared in a splendor unglimpsed by those who never left the sidereal universe. Colors and hints of color–hues Daniel was sure formed in his mind rather than on his retinas–spread to infinity wherever he turned.
Every spark was a universe, every color was as meaningful as a woman's glance. At times like this, Daniel felt that the only reason for the sidereal universe was to permit a man to eat between visits to the Matrix.
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1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 89:
CHAPTER 33
Rome
"Your Holiness." Barberini presented himself, feeling again, despite the utter chaos he had come through to be here, like a naughty schoolboy summoned before a master for punishment.
"I trust," said His Holiness, "that you have made arrangements for our people at the palazzo to flee the city?"
Barberini caught the difference in inflection of that possessive determiner. His uncle was not speaking as Pope Urban VIII, but as the senior man of casa Barberini. "Your Holiness, I have. Plans were in hand as much as two weeks ago, Your Holiness. I have given the order to prepare. Shall I give the order to flee? My elder brother will be leading an advance party in the morning come what may."
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SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 70:
"Which brings me to the purpose of my visit," said Adele. "Master Nordeen has arranged for eight antimatter converters to arrive by barge alongside the Stoddard this evening. A number of trained spacers will also arrive. They will begin the task of replacing your faulty units. They'll be staying on board the ship while they work."
"We need the motors too," Stonewell said quickly. "The converters were the problem, right, but we didn't catch them in time before they'd ate up the motors."
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1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 88:
"Dottoressa!" it was Carlo, one of the embassy's resident runners. "You are wanted in the secret room, please." He dashed off for whatever errand was next on his list.
She mounted the stairs. Only the three radio guys, all USE nationals, were allowed in there. Sharon figured it was probably pretty much an open secret by now that messages came and went through the secret room, but the local staff seemed to be pretty good about at least keeping up the fiction that they didn't know what went on in there.
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SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 69:
Master Nordeen's conveyance was a low-slung runabout which'd surprised Adele when his chauffeur first brought it out of the garage behind the merchant's townhouse. The vehicle was nearly silent because it ran on four hub-center motors but they were extremely powerful. The open wheels tilted on the axles, allowing the car to hold the road like molasses running down the side of a bottle.
Adele turned to her host as the chauffeur pulled up beside the Stoddard in slip West 35. The traffic passing on Harbor Drive was heavy; a large freighter was discharging a cargo of bales onto a line of lowboys, each pulled by a snorting diesel tractor.
"I didn't expect so sporting a car, Master Nordeen," she said, speaking over the noise of the tractors.
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1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 87:
She felt Ruy's arm on hers stiffen. She heard him mutter something, but couldn't tell what it was over the sound of the bells. Lots of bells. Sunday mornings could be good and loud in Rome, but at a little distance from the belltowers the noise was bearable. They were standing right under the belltower here, of course, and for some reason the whole of Rome seemed to be ringing its bells.
Sharon put two and two together. "Back to the embassy, everyone!" she said loudly, and tugged on Ruy's arm to get him moving again.
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SOME GOLDEN HARBOR – snippet 68:
If Woetjans had heard the conversation, she'd have ignored it because it wouldn't have made sense to her. The bosun wasn't an intellectual and knew it. There was a lot in the world that she didn't understand, and that wasn't something that bothered her.
Adele, of course, would've understood that Daniel was telling Otto things that Otto already believed. That made him more likely to believe the other things Daniel would tell him.
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1635: THE CANNON LAW – snippet 86:
PART IV: May 1635
CHAPTER 32
Rome
Ruy reflected that he ought to be getting used to this by now. Signora Fontana and Father Malatta had planned—conspired would be as good a word—with Sharon to ensure that the nuptials he was now awaiting the commencement of were fully prepared for. And, like a well-drilled soldier, Ruy's job was to stand in line and advance on command.
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