"Harry Harrison - SSR 04 - The Stainlees Steel Rat Wants You" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

the ID plate, punched in my priority code, then the number of the kidnap car and asked for
identification. Not a very complex task for a planetary computer and the answer appeared on the
screen as soon as I hit the PRINT button.

When it did I dropped numbly into the chair. They had her.

This was far worse than I had imagined. Now, look, don't go thinking that I am a coward. Quite
the opposite, I say humbly. You are looking at a survivor of a lifetime of crimewho has also
survived another lifetime of crime-fighting after being drafted into the Special Corps, the elite
galaxywide organization that uses crooks to catch crooks. That I have stayed relatively sound in
wind and body all these years certainly speaks well of my reflexes, if not my intelligence. It was
now going to take all my years of experience to "tract my dear wife from this nasty situation.
Thought was needed, not action and, though it was still early in the day, I cracked out a bottle
of 140 proof Old Thought Provoker and poured a generous amount to lubricate my synapses.

With the first sip came the realization that the boys would have to be in on this one.


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Angelina and I, doting parents, had labored to shield them from the cruel facts of the world, but
that time was over. Their graduation from school was still a few days away, but I was sure that
this could be accelerated with the correct persuasion in the proper quarters. Strange to think
they were almost out of their teens already; how the years slip by. Their mother--Angelina, my
kidnapped treasure!--was as beautiful as ever. As for myself, I may be older but I am no wiser.
The gray in my hair has not affected the lust for gold in my heart.

I did not waste a moment as I mumbled to myself nostalgically. Throwing on my clothes, kicking
on my boots, stowing away about my person a number of lethal and technological devices, I dropped
into the garage even as I closed the last closure. My bright red Firebom 8000 exploded into the
drive as the door snapped open and hurtled down the road, scattering the dull citizens of the
peaceful planet of Blodgett in all directions. The only reason we had settled on this bucolic
world was to be near the boys while they were at school. I would be delighted to leave the place
without a backward glance. Not only had it all the boredom of an agricultural planet, it was also
infested by an octopuslike bureaucracy. Since it was centrally located among a number of star
systems, and boasted a salubrious climate, the bureaucrats and League administrators had moved in
to create a secondary economy of government offices. I preferred the farmers.

The farms gave way to trees as I burned down the road, then to the barren rock hills. There
was a chill in the air at this altitude that went with the somber stone cliffs and, when I whisked
around the final turn, the damp morning perfectly matched the rough finish of the high stone wall
ahead. As the spiked portcullis rumbled slowly upward I admired, not for the first time, the
letters hacked into the black slab of steel by the entrance.


DORSKY MILITARY BOARDING SCHOOL
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