"Murray Leinster - Talents,Incorporated" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

waited, aground, to take the king and some other persons
on board at the last moment. When the Mekinese navy
arrived--or as much of it as was needed to make resistance
hopeless--the end for Kandar would have come. That was
the impending disaster. If it came too soon, Bors's task of
destruction couldn't be completed as was wished. In such
a case this Ministry and all the others would hastily be
doused with incendiary material and fired, and it would
desperately be hoped that all the planet's records went up
in the flames.
Captain Bors flung more and more papers on the blaze.
He came to an end of them.
The communicator buzzed, again. He answered once
more.

"Sir, the space-yacht Sylva is landed. It comes from
Norden and has no direct information about the Mekinese.
But there's a man named Morgan with a very important
letter for the Minister for Diplomatic Affairs. It's from the
Minister for Diplomatic Affairs on Norden. "

Bors said sardonically, "Maybe he should wait a few days
or hours and give it to the Mekinese! Send him over if he
wants to take the chance, but warn him not to let anybody
from his yacht leave the spaceport!"

"Yes, sir. "
Bors made a quick circuit of the Ministry building to make
sure the rest of the destruction was thoroughly carried out.
He glanced out of a window and saw the other ministries.
From their chimneys thick smoke poured out--the criminal
records were being incinerated in the Ministry of Police.
Tax records were burning in the Ministry of Finance.
Educational information about Kandarian citizens flamed
and smoked in the Ministry of Education. Even voting and
vehicle-registry lists were being wiped out of existence by
flames and the crushing of ashes at appropriate agencies.
The planet's banks were completing the distribution of coin
and currency, with promissory notes to those depositors
they could not pay in full, and the real-estate registers
were open so individuals could remove and hide or destroy
their titles to property. The stockholders' books of
corporations were being burned. Small ships parted with
their wares and took promises of payment in return. The
planet Kandar, in fact, made ready to receive its
conquerors.
It was not conquered yet, but there could be no hope.
Bors was in the act of brushing off his hands again, in a
sort of symbolic gesture of completion, when a ground-car
stopped before the Ministry. A stout man got out. A rather