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

you, Miss… ah, Tog.”
Sid Jakes laughed easily. “Section G operatives always work in
pairs, Ronny. Especially new agents. The advantages will come
home to you as you go along. Look on Tog Lee Chang Chu as a
secretary, a gal Friday. This isn’t her first assignment, of course.
You’ll find her invaluable.”
The supervisor plucked a card from an order box. “Now,
here’s the dope. Can you leave within four hours? There’s a UP
Space Force cruiser going to Merlini; they can drop you off at New
Delos. Fastest way you could possibly get there. The cruiser takes
off from Neuve Alburquerque in, let’s see, three hours and
forty-five minutes.”
“New Delos?” Ronny said, taking his eyes from the girl and
trying to catch up with the grasshopper-like conversation of his
superior.
“New Delos it is,” Jakes said happily. “With luck, you might
catch him before he can get off the planet.” He chuckled at the
other’s expression. “Look alive, Ronny! The quarry is flushed and
on the run. Tommy Paine’s just assassinated the Immortal
God-King of New Delos. A neat trick, eh?”
 V

The following hours were chaotic. There was no indication of
how long a period he’d be gone. For all he knew, it might be years.
For that matter, he might never return to Earth. This Ronny
Bronston had realized before he’d ever applied for an interplanetary
appointment. Mankind was exploding through this spiral arm of
the galaxy. There was a racial enthusiasm about it all. Man’s destiny
lay out in the stars; only a laggard stayed home of his own accord.
It was the ambition of every youth to join the snowballing
avalanche of man into the neighboring stars.
It took absolute severity by Earth authorities to prevent the
depopulation of the planet. But someone had to stay to administer
the ever more complicated racial destiny. Earth became a clearing
house for a thousand cultures, attempting, with only moderate
success, to coördinate her widely spreading children. She couldn’t
afford to let her best seed depart. Few were allowed to emigrate
from Earth anymore. New colonies drew their immigrants from
older ones.
Lucky was the Earthling able to find service in interplanetary
affairs, in any of the thousands of tasks that involved journey
between member planets of UP. Possibly one hundredth of the
population at one time or another, and for varying lengths of time,
managed it.
Ronny Bronston was lucky and knew it. The thing now was to
pull off this assignment and cinch the appointment for good.
He packed in a swirl of confusion. He phoned a relative who
lived in the part of town once known as Richmond, explained the
situation and asked that the other store his things and dispose of
the apartment he’d been occupying.