" Perry Rhodan 0082 - (74) Checkmate Universe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

From his seat at the table, Rhodan could look out through a large window and see a vast section of the
city of Terrania. The room was on the top floor of the tall administration building. Rhodan had attached
great importance to having his office here. The view of the city was a constant reminder of the gravity of
the decisions that were made in the room.

"Everything’s in order," Bell announced, closing the door behind him. He seemed to be confident that
Rhodan would understand what he was referring to.

Rhodan broke off from the work he had been doing. "What did he say?" he asked.

Bell grinned almost maliciously. "He knocked out one of the two guys before he knew what was going
on, and the other one afterwards. Both of them are now undergoing treatment. But I think they
understood how Tifflor was feeling at the time."

Rhodan nodded smilingly. "What did Mercant’s agents have to say about it? Did they observe anyone?"

Bell shrugged his shoulders. "They saw a few suspicious characters following Tifflor’s car up to the city
limits, although not all the way to the Psychostation. Mercant has put them down on his list: they are
possibly galactic spies, although they don’t know exactly what’s happened. They’ll start to make sense of
it when Tifflor disappears. It looks as though everything’s in fine shape."

Bell had come closer and sat down in one of the comfortable chairs that Rhodan had provided for his
visitors.

"I still don’t know what we expect to gain from this business, Perry," Bell continued.

Rhodan did not seem to have heard the question. He looked past Bell and out the window. The clear
white winter’s sun stood two hands’ breadths over the horizon. It was 9 A.M. Half an hour before, frost
had gleamed from the roofs. The year was coming to an end.

"There’s much we can gain from it," Rhodan answered at length. "Like a serious weakening of the
military potential of our two enemies, the Druufs and the Arkonides."

Bell cleared his throat. "I recall that just two months ago we intended to attack Arkon directly.
Everything was ready for it. Only a small incident kept us from going through with it. Why don’t we put
the same plan into operation again?"

Rhodan looked at his friend. "What you call a small incident," he replied, amused, "came very close to
costing us our lives as well as the lives of others. Have you forgotten so quickly? Don’t you still
remember how it looked when the entire planet Grautier exploded beneath our feet?"

Bell nodded. "Sure. It was serious for us. But in comparison with the scale of galactic politics, it was
only a small incident. We lived through it and now we can take the plan up again, right?"

Rhodan answered quickly, "No, we can’t We’ve had to realize that we aren’t ready to take the
Arkonides’ place yet. Our feet aren’t big enough to fit their shoes, so to speak."
Bell leaned forward. "That’s a colourful metaphor," he said irritably "but I don’t think it applies."

Rhodan glanced in the direction of a stack of paper-thin sheets of plastifoil lying on the table in front of