"Spider Robinson - Callahan 11 - Calahan's Con" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

This book is dedicated to Larry Janifer, known to some as Oudis: senior colleague, Knave
extraordinaire, and extraordinary friend

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen
property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the
publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either fictitious or are
used fictitiously.

CALLAHAN'S CON

Copyright © 2003 by Spider Robinson

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or por-tions thereof, in any form.

Edited by Patrick LoBrutto
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC 175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor.com

Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 0-765-34165-4 EAN 978-0765-34165-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003040285
First edition: July 2003
First mass market edition: June 2004

Printed in the United States of America 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For assistance and advice in matters of science and technology, this time around, I am deeply indebted
to Douglas Beder, Jaymie Matthews, Ray Maxwell, Jef Raskin, Dave Sloan, and Guy Immega; as
always, any mistakes or inaccura-cies are my fault for trusting them. Assistance of other kinds, just as
valuable and appreciated, was provided by Rod Rempel, Lawrence Justrabo, and Colin MacDonald (the
wizards behind my Web site), and by Bob Atkinson, Steve Fahnestalk, Daniel Finger, Stephen Gaskin,
Paul Krassner, Alex and Mina Morton, Val Ross, Riley Sparks, the late Laurence M. Janifer, every one
of the posters to the Usenet newsgroup alt.callahans, and oth-ers too numerous or fugitive to mention.
Particular thanks go to one of my favorite writers, Laurence Shames, for his gracious permission to
borrow, for the second time, his splendid creations Bert the Shirt and Don Giovanni. If you find them as
delightful as I do, look for Mr. Shames's novels Florida Straits, Sunburn, and Mango Squeeze.
None of my thirty-one books—or anything else I've done—would have been possible without the
advice, ideas, research assistance, not-always-credited collaboration, and ongoing love and support of
my wife, Jeanne. This time out, however, she deserves more than the usual thanks; this is the first book
I've written since I quit smoking tobacco, and I estimate I was about 15 to 20 percent harder to live with
than usual during its creation. (Neither of us is complaining; we both figure it's a good trade. But