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

His indoctrination course was a strain such as he’d never
known in school years. Ross Metaxa was evidently of the opinion
that a man could assimilate concentrated information at a rate
several times faster than any professional educator ever dreamed
possible. No threats were made, but Ronny realized that he could
be dropped even more quickly than he’d seemed to have been taken
on. There were no classes, to either push or retard the rate of study.
He worked with a series of tutors, and pushed himself. The tutors
were almost invariably Section G agents, temporarily in Greater
Washington between assignments, or for briefing on this phase or
that of their work.
Even as he studied, Ronny Bronston kept in mind the
eventual assignment at which he was to prove himself. He made a
point of inquiring of each agent he met about Tommy Paine.
The name was known to all, but no two reacted in the same
manner. Several of them even brushed the whole matter aside as
pure legend. Nobody could accomplish all the trouble that Tommy
Paine had supposedly stirred up.
To one of these, Ronny said plaintively, “Look, the Old Man
believes in him, Sid Jakes believes in him. My final appointment
depends on arresting him. How can I ever secure this job, if I’m
chasing a myth?”
The other shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’ve got my own
problems. O.K., now, let’s run over this question of Napoleonic
law. There are at least two hundred planets that base their legal
system on it.”
But the majority of his fellow employees in Section G had
strong enough opinions on the interplanetary firebrand. Three or
four even claimed to have seen him fleetingly, although no two
descriptions jibed. That, of course, could be explained. The man
could resort to plastic surgery and other disguises.
Theories there were in plenty, some of them going back long
years, and some of them pure fable.
“Look,” Ronny said in disgust one day after a particularly
unbelievable siege with two agents recently returned from a trouble
spot in a planetary system that involved three aggressive worlds
which revolved about the same sun. “Look, it’s impossible for one
man to accomplish all this. He’s blamed for half the coups d’états,
revolts and upheavals that have taken place for the past quarter
century. It’s obvious nonsense. Why, a revolutionist usually spends
the greater part of his life toppling a government. Then, once it
toppled, he spends the rest of his life trying to set up a new
government—and he’s usually unsuccessful.”
One of the others was shaking his head negatively. “You
don’t understand this Tommy Paine’s system, Bronston.”
The other agent, a Nigerian, grinned widely. “You sure don’t.
I’ve been on planets where he’d operated.”
Ronny leaned forward. The three of them were having a beer
in a part of the city once called Baltimore. “You have?” he said.
“Tell me about it, eh? The more background I get on this guy, the