"Harry Harrison - Deathworld 2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"I am Mikah Samon. I am returning you to Cassylia for trial and
sentencing."

"Cassylia-I thought I recognized the identification on this ship. I
suppose I shouldn't be surprised to hear that they are still interested in
finding me. But you ought to know that there is very little remaining of the
three billion, seventeen million credits that I won from your casino."

"Cassylia does not want the money back," Mikah said as he locked the
controls and swung about in his chair. "They do not want you back either since
you are their planetary hero now. When you escaped with your ill-gotten gains
they realized that they would never see the money again. So they put their
propaganda mills to work and you are now known throughout all the adjoining
star systems as 'Jason ThreeBillion,' the living proof of the honesty of their
dishonest games, and a lure for all the weak in spirit. You tempt them into
gambling for money instead of working honestly for it."

"Pardon me for being slow-witted today," Jason said, shaking his head
rapidly to loosen up the stuck synapses. "I'm having a little difficulty in
following you. What kind of a policeman are you, to arrest me for trial after
the charges have been dropped?"

"I am not a policeman," Mikah said sternly, his long fingers woven
tightly together before him, his eyes wide and penetrating. "I am a believer
in Truth-nothing more. The corrupt politicians who control Cassylia have
placed you on a pedestal of honor. Honoring you, another and-if possible-a
more corrupt man, and behind your image they have waxed fat. But I am going to
use the Truth to destroy that image, and when I destroy the image I shall
destroy the evil that produced it."

"That's a tall order for one man," Jason said calmly-more calmly than he
really felt. "Do you have a cigarette?"

"There is of course no tobacco or spirits on this ship. And I am more
than one man-I have followers. The Truth Party is already a power to be
reckoned with. We have spent much time and energy in tracking you down, but it
was worth it. We have followed your dishonest trail into the past, to Mahaut's
Planet, to the Nebula Casino on Galipto, through a series of sordid crimes
that turn an honest man's stomach. We have warrants for your arrest from each
of these places, in some cases even the results of trials and your death
sentence."

"I suppose it doesn't bother your sense of legality that those trials
were all held in my absence?" Jason asked. "Or that I have only fleeced
casinos and gamblers-who make their living by fleecing suckers?"

Mikah Samon wiped away this consideration with a wave of his hand. "You
have been proved guilty of a number of crimes. No amount of wriggling on the
hook can change that. You should be thankful that your revolting record will
have a good use in the end. It will be the lever with which we shall topple