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

While they waited, Dantler amusedly counted the seconds. He had reached six when the door opened.
As he expected, Pummery kept everyone who worked for him on his toes.

Pummery did not bother to introduce Jabek. Instead, he introduced Dantler. He said, "This is Birk
Dantler, an officer of the GBI, the Galactic Bureau of Investigation. The GBI is the investigative arm of
the Inter-World Council. He has been sent here on a confidential mission of inspection and investigation.
Do you know what that means?"

"No, sir," Jabek answered apologetically.
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"The Inter-World Council has a stranglehold on every world in the galaxy—if it chooses to apply it. At
this moment, Officer Dantler is the most powerful man on the world of Llayless. If he finds this
organization or any organization or individual on the world less than completely cooperative, he can
express his dissatisfaction, and an absolute embargo will be placed on us. No ship will arrive; no ship will
leave.

"You will prepare the necessary credentials for him. He can go wherever he likes, and transportation is
to be arranged for him whenever he needs it; he is to see whatever he wants to see; he is to talk with
whomever he wants to talk with. Any person who fails to cooperate fully will find him or herself on the
next outbound spaceship. The credentials you give him should make that clear."

Pummery turned to Dantler. "I can order everyone on the world of Llayless to cooperate with you, but I
have no control over what they say, and I can't make them tell the truth. Neither can I tell you anything
about this murder myself because I have no knowledge about it.

"I want to make one thing clear. We may have no government here, but as I already mentioned, we are
not without laws—though we don't call them that. We have rules of conduct that we impose on
ourselves, and they make human society possible. Until you arrived I would have said lawless Llayless is
the most law-abiding world in the galaxy. If there has been a murder on this world, the fact that I never
heard of it doesn't mean that the crime hasn't been noticed and the murderer hasn't already been
punished—under our form of law, not yours. If I can assist you further, come and see me."

He got to his feet and touched Dantler's hand briefly. Mr. Jabek murmured, "Come with me, please,"
and led him into the adjoining office.

Half an hour later, armed with every credential Mr. Jabek could provide for him, Dantler returned to the
ground floor and nodded perfunctorily at the blue-blond receptionist as he passed her on his way to the
exit.
***

Hunting for a murderer on a world without government was an entirely new experience for Dantler.
Regardless of what Pummery had said, there was a principle that held true everywhere in the galaxy: No
government meant no laws. As he left for the Last Hope mine, the reported scene of the murder, he
wondered again what he would charge the murderer with when he caught him, and what court of justice
he would bring him before on a world that had no courts.