"Mack Reynolds - Planetary Agent X" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

It was one turn to his left and two turns to his right. The door
was lettered simply SIDNEY JAKES. He knocked and a voice
shouted happily, “It’s open. It’s always open.”
Supervisor Jakes was as informal as his superior. His attire
was on the happy-go-lucky side, more suited for sports wear than a
fairly high ranking job in the ultra-staid Octagon.
He couldn’t have been much older than Ronny Bronston, but
he had a nervous vitality about him that would have worn out the
other in a few hours. He jumped up and shook hands. “You must
be Bronston. Call me Sid.” He waved a hand at a typed report he’d
been reading. “Now I’ve seen them all. They’ve just applied for
entry to United Planets. Republic. What a name, eh?”
“What?” Ronny said.
“Sit down, sit down.” He rushed Ronny to a chair, saw him
seated, returned to the desk and flicked an order box switch.
“Irene,” he said, “do up a badge for Ronny, will you? You’ve got
his code, haven’t you? Good. Send it over. Bronze, of course.”
Sid Jakes turned back to Ronny and grinned at him. He
motioned to the report again. “What a name for a planet. Republic.
Bunch of screwballs, again. Out in the vicinity of Sirius. Based
their system on Plato’s Republic. Have to go the whole way. Don’t
even speak Basic. Certainly not. They speak Ancient Greek. That’s
going to be a neat trick, finding interpreters. How’d you like the
Old Man?”
Ronny said, dazed at the conversational barrage, “Old Man?
Oh, you mean Commissioner Metaxa.”
“Sure, sure,” Sid grinned, perching himself on the edge of the
desk. “Did he give you that drink of tequila during working hours
routine? He’d like to poison every new agent we get. What a
character.”
The grin was infectious. Ronny said carefully, “Well, I did
think his method of hiring a new man was a little—cavalier.”
“Cavalier, yet,” Sid Jakes chortled. “Look, don’t get the Old
Man wrong. He knows what he’s doing.”
“But he took me on after only two or three minutes
conversation.”
Jakes cocked his head to one side. “Oh? You think so? When
did you first apply for interplanetary assignment, Ronny?”
“I don’t know, about three years ago.”
Jakes nodded. “Well, depend on it, you’ve been under
observation for that length of time. At any one period, Section G is
investigating possibly a thousand potential agents. We need men
but qualifications are high.”
He hopped down from his position, sped around to the other
side of the desk and lowered himself into his chair. “Don’t get the
wrong idea, though. You’re not in. You’re on probation. Whatever
the assignment the Old Man gave you, you’ve got to carry it out
successfully before you’re full fledged.” He flicked the order-box
switch and said, “Irene, where the devil’s Ronny’s badge?”
Ronny Bronston heard the office girl’s voice answer