"Eric Frank Russel - Six Worlds Yonder" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

Street & Smith Publications, Inc.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Waitabits
Tieline
Top Secret
Nothing New
Into Your Tent I'll Creep
Diabologic



THE WAITABITS

HE STRODE toward the Assignment Office with quiet confi-
dence born of long service, much experience and high rank.
Once upon a time a peremptory call to this department had
made him slightly edgy, exactly as it unnerved the fresh-
faced juniors today. But that had been long, long ago. He was
gray-haired now, with wrinkles around the corners of his eyes,
silver oak-leaves on his epaulettes. He had heard enough, seen
enough and learned enough to have lost the capacity for
surprise.
Markham was going to hand him a tough one. That was
Markham's job: to rake through a mess of laconic, garbled,
distorted or eccentric reports, pick out the obvious problems
and dump them squarely in the laps of whoever happened to
be hanging around and was considered suitable to solve them.
One thing could be said in favor of this technique: its vic-
tims often were bothered, bedeviled or busted, but at least
they were never bored. The problems were not commonplace,
the solutions sometimes fantastic.
The door detected his body-heat as he approached, swung
open with silent efficiency. He went through, took a chair,
gazed phlegmatically at the heavy man behind the desk.
"Ah, Commodore Leigh," said Markham pleasantly. He
shuffled some papers, got them in order, surveyed the top
one. "I am informed that the Thunderer's overhaul is com-
plete, the crew has been recalled and everything is ready for
flight."
"That is correct."

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruisw...ric%20Frank%20Russel%20-%20Six%20Worlds%20Yonder.txt (2 of 106)20-2-2006 23:16:09
 file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswijk/Mijn%20do...enten/spaar/Eric%20Frank%20Russel%20-%20Six%20Worlds%20Yonder.txt

"Well now, I have a task for you." Markham put on the
sinister smile that invariably accompanied such an announce-