"Martin H. Greenberg & Mark Tier - Visions of Liberty" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenberg Martin H)

"By quitting without notice, he forfeited any wages owed to him. I know nothing about his personal
effects. Probably he took with him anything he wanted to keep. He hadn't been here long enough to have
accumulated much."

Obviously Mullard had nothing more to tell him, so Dantler boarded the passenger car on the next
departing ore train and rode down to Pummery in a totally frustrated mood.
***

The world of Llayless had been named after an early explorer, but through eight sectors of space it was
known as "Lawless." Among worlds, it was a genuine oddity—a single-owner world. Old Albert Nicols,
the original owner, who had managed, by dint of rigged poker games, loans foreclosed with indecent
haste, and questionable wills to consolidate several hundred claims into one title deed, had taken a young
wife just before he died. By that time Llayless was an extremely wealthy mining world with only a tiny
fraction of its potential being exploited, and the widow inherited everything. She immediately established
her residence several sectors away on a world that offered far more comfort than the world of Llayless
could have provided for her, and from that vantage point she kept close tabs on her accumulating mining
royalties and gave generously to charities.

Single ownership was not the world's only peculiarity. It had no government. Those who leased land and
mineral rights were responsible, by contract, for their holdings and everyone they permitted on them.
Some administered them in a stern, paternal fashion; some were tyrannical dictators; a few ran their
holdings congenially as partnerships. Occasionally one let things degenerate into rowdyism but only until
the world's factor heard about it.

Finally, the world of Llayless was "Unnullified." This was a form of probation inflicted on all recently
discovered and newly settled worlds. The sacred constitution of the Inter-World Federation guaranteed
certain human rights and considerations throughout its territory, and a world that failed in this respect was
nullified, which meant that it was totally embargoed. A world without government was placed in limbo
with the label "Unnullified" until it got its act together. After a reasonable time the world would either be
normalized or changed to Nullified status.

Birk Dantler had looked into the Llayless's history before he left on his assignment. He was startled to
find that there had been no updating of its status since it was, as a newly settled world, marked
"Unnullified." He took the matter to his superiors, who took it to their superiors. Someone had goofed.
As a result, Dantler was given an important subsidiary mission. In addition to tracking down a murderer,
he was to give the world a long-overdue evaluation of its status. If the unusual nature of the world posed
any complications for him, he had the authority to recommend immediate reclassification to "Nullified."

Arriving on Llayless, Dantler discovered that custom and immigration procedures were both informal
and simple. There almost weren't any. Each new arrival had to place on file a fully paid return ticket to
the world he came from. His fingerprints and the name of his next-of-kin were recorded, but that was
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only so the Llayless Mining Corporation would know who was on the world just in case some other
world's investigative branch should come looking, and so there would be someone to notify and send his
property to in case he died. These formalities taken care of, a wave of the hand conferred the freedom of