"Eric Frank Russell - Basic Right" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

"How do you know all this?" demanded Zalumar.
"He told me of his plans. He invited me to come in with him."
"Why didn't you?"
"I didn't share his optimism. Heisham always was too cocksure for my liking."
"Then why didn't you inform me of this plot?"
Lakin spread hands to indicate helplessness. "What was the use? You'd have taxed him with
treachery and he'd have denied it, knowing full well that you were already tired of my warnings. Would
you have believed me?"
Letting that awkward question pass unanswered, Zalumar buried himself in worried thought,
eventually said, "The Terrans will not support his tale. They have nothing to gain by doing so. It is of total
indifference to them whether Heisham's gang live or die."
"The Terrans have agreed to confirm everything he says—for a price."
Leaning forward, Zalumar asked in tones of suppressed fury, "What price?"
"The eight ships Heisham could not take."
 "Intact and complete with their planet-busting equipment?"
"Yes," Lakin brooded a moment, added, "Even Heisham would have refused such payment had the
Terrans any idea of where Raidan is located. But they don't know. They haven't the slightest notion."
Taking no notice, Zalumar sat breathing heavily while his features changed color. Then suddenly he
shot to his feet and yelled at the guard.
"You piece of filth! You dirty, lowdown animal!"
"Now, now!" said Milt, mildly amused. "Take it easy."
The door opened. Fox entered along with McKenzie and Vitelli. The latter bestowed on Zalumar the
same unctuous smile that had not varied in six long years.
All three wore uniform and carried guns. Thus attired they looked much different; they'd acquired a
hardness not noticed before. It wasn't quite like Raidan hardness, either. There was something else, a
sort of patient craftiness.
Zalumar still had an ace up his sleeve; without giving them time to speak, he played it. "The ships
won't do you any good. We shall never tell you where Raidan is."
"There's no need to," said Fox, evenly. "We know."
"You're a liar. None of my men would give you that information, not even a self-seeking swine like
Heisham."
"Nobody did tell us. We found out from what they did not tell."
"Don't give me that! I—"
"It was a long and tedious task but finally we made it," Fox chipped in. All your wandering,
sight-seeing tourists were willing to talk, being lonesome and far from home. We chatted with them at
every opportunity. Not one would say just where he came from but every one of them readily admitted
he did not come from some other place. We have analyzed records of eighty thousand conversations
spread across six years. By simple process of elimination we've narrowed it down to the system of Sigma
Octantis."
"You're wrong," asserted Zalumar, straining to hold himself in check. "Dead wrong."
"Time will show. There won't be much of it, either. Maybe we could build a super-fleet by combining
the virtues of your ships and ours. But we're not going to bother. It would take too long. We'll have
learned how to operate your vessels before another day has passed."
"Eight ships against Raidan's thousands?" Zalumar indulged in a harsh laugh. "You haven't a hope of
victory."
"There will no thousands from Raidan. We're going to send those ships hotfoot after Heisham. Even if
they don't overtake him they'll arrive so close behind that the Raidan authorities will have had no time to
react."
"And what then?"
"A new binary will be born."