"Piper, H Beam - Fuzzy 2 - Other Human Race2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

"Good morning, Mr. Grego." She was eyeing his dressing gown
and counting the cigarette butts in the ashtray, trying to estimate
how soon he'd be down at his desk. "An awful lot of business has
come in this morning."

"Good morning, Myra. What kind of business?"

"Well, things are getting much worse in the cattle country. The
veldbeest herders are all quitting their jobs; just flying off and
leaving the herds..."

"Are they flying oll in company aircars? If they are, have Harry
Steefer put out wants for them on stolen-vehicle charges."

"And the City of Malverton; she's spacing out from Darius today."
She went on to tell him about that.

'I know. That was all decided yesterday. Just tell them to carry on
with it. Now, is there anything I really have to attend to personally?
If there is, bundle it up and send it to the stall conference room; I'll
handle it there with the people concerned. Rubber-stamp the rest
and send it back where it belongs, which is not on my desk. I won't
be in; I'm going straight to the conference room. That will be in half
an hour. Tell the houseboy he can come in to clean up then, and
tell the chef I won't be eating here at all. I'll have lunch off a tray
some­where, and dinner with Mr. Coombes in the Executive
Rooin."

Then he waited, mentally counting to a hundred. As he had
ex­pected, before he reached fifty Myra was getting into a flutter.

"Mr. Grego, I almost forgot!" She usually did. "Mr. Evins wants
inside the gem-reserve vault; he's down there now."

"Yes, I told him to make inventory and appraisal today. I'd
for­gotten about that myself. Well, we can't keep him waiting. I'll go
down directly."

He blanked the screen ' gulped what was left of the coflee and
rose, leaving the kitchenette-breakfast room and crossing the short
hall to his bedroom, taking off his dressing gown as he went. That
he should not have forgotten: the problem represented by the
contents of the gem-reserve vault was of greater importance,
though of less immedi­acy, than what was going on in the cattle
country.

Up to a week ago, when Chief Justice Pendarvis had smashed the
company's charter with a few taps of his gavel, sunstones had
been a company monopoly. It had been illegal for anybody but the