"Harry Harrison - Planet Of The Damned (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"We've made some progress--you're finally asking Thow.' The technique here
took a good number of agents, and a great deal of money. Personal honor was
emphasized in order to encourage dueling, and this led to a heightened
interest in the technique of personal combat. When this was well intrenched
Giroldi was brought in, and he showed how organized competitions could be more
interesting than haphazard encounters. Tying the intellectual aspects onto the
framework of competitive sports was a little more difficult, but not
overwhelmingly so. The details aren't important; all we are considering now is
the end product. Which is you. You're needed very much."

"Why me?" Brion asked. "Why am I special? Because I won the Twenties? I can't
believe that. Taken objectively, there isn't that much difference between
myself and the ten runner-ups. Why don't you ask one of them? They could do
your job as well as I."

"No, they couldn't. I'll tell you later why you are the only man I can use.
Our time is running out and I must convince you of some other things first."
Hijel glanced at his watch. "We have less than three hours to dead-deadline.
Before that time I must explain enough of our work to you to enable you to
decide voluntarily to join us."

"A very tall order," Brion said. "You might begin by telling me just who this
mysterious 'we' is that you keep referring to."

"The Cultural Relationships Foundation. A non-

governmental body, privately endowed, existing to promote peace and ensure the
sovereign welfare of independent planets, so that all will prosper from the
good will and commerce thereby engendered."

"Sounds as if you're quoting," Brion told him. "No one could possibly make up
something that sounds like that on the spur of the moment."

"I was quoting, from our charter of organization. Which is all very fine in a
general sense, but I'm talking specifically now. About you. You are the
product of a tightly knit and very advanced society. Your individuality has
been encouraged by your growing up in a society so small in population that a
mild form of government control is necessary. The normal Anvharian education
is an excellent one, and participation in the Twenties has given you a general
and advanced education second to none in the galaxy. It would be a complete
waste of your entire life if you now took all this training and wasted it on
some rustic farm."

"You give me very little credit. I plan to teach--"

"Forget Anvhar!" Dijel cut him off with a chop of his hand. "This world will
roll on quite successfully whether you are here or not. You must forget it,
think of its relative unimportance on a galactic scale, and consider instead
the existing, suffering hordes of mankind. You must think what you can do to
help them."