标题: 《The Line of Polity》作者： - Neal Asher【EPUB】 [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2014-1-15 07:56 标题: 《The Line of Polity》作者： - Neal Asher【EPUB】 The Line of Polity Neal Asher (Agent Cormac book 2) For Dawn, Samantha and Rebecca, Lorna and Jack, and all ensuing generations of readers Acknowledgements My thanks as always to Caroline for encouragement and support even when subjected to my readings, or tirades, about obdurate plotlines; Peter Lavery for his judicious pencil and lavish patronage; Stefanie Bierwerth for all her efficient help; Steve Rawlings, Richard Ogle and James Hollywell for those stunning covers; Jason Cooper and Chantal Noel for infiltrating my books into Germany and America; and to all the other staff at Pan Macmillan for their hard work. Further thanks to all those people grafting in research establishments and laboratories across the world: people who will in years to come be putting wheelchair manufacturers out of business, restoring sight and creating artificial limbs — when not finding ways to grow new ones — finding cures for cancers and other ills, and generally bringing closer a future only small aspects of which the likes of myself attempt to imagine. Prologue Eldene felt weak and light-headed for the second time that morning and wondered if her scole was preparing to drop a litter of leaves. Running her thumb down the stick-seam of her shirt, she opened the garment to inspect this constant companion of hers that oxygenated her blood in exchange for a share of it. The scole clung to her chest, between and below her breasts, like a great flat aphid coloured in shades of dark brown and purple; however, it was a relatively small creature, as she was still a young woman. Observing a reddish flushing in the crevices between its many segments, as it rippled against her body, confirmed