"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 4 - Getaway world" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

With their suspects bound securely, the two DesPlainians examined them carefully. It
was Yvette who first noticed the tiny necklaces that two of them were wearing-integrated
circuit chips on golden chains. "Look at these," she called to her brother. "I seem to
recall from their description that both Duke Fyodor and Dr. Rustin wore necklaces like
these."

Jules came over and gave them his close scrutiny. "Absolutement," he said. "We seem
to have found a correlation. Possibly it's some sort of identity code, or has some
fraternal significance. Whatever it means, though, it's obvious that we'll have to
concentrate most of our efforts on these two. I prescribe nitrobarb for them and
detrazine for the rest."

Yvette nodded her concurrence and, from a kit in her belt, she began readying the
indicated injections. Both drugs were variations of truth serum; detrazine was by far the
more common, although it was possible for a subject with a hypnotic block or an
extremely strong willpower to be able to withstand its effects. That was not the case with
nitrobarb, the most powerful truth drug known to man. No one could resist telling the
complete truth under its influence-but the drawback was that the drug had a fifty percent
mortality rate, and was very tricky to use. These disagreeable side effects had led to
nitrobarb's being proscribed. Mere possession of it was a capital offense--but that, of
course, did not stop people on either side of the law from using it.

It took about twenty minutes for the nitrobarb to take effect. While they waited, Jules and
Yvette questioned the mob leaders who were given the faster-acting detrazine.
Everything that was said went directly into the d'Alemberts' miniaturized recorders for
possible future use by SOTS or other law enforcement agencies. Many subjects were
covered, and the agents dug up enough dirt on these underlings to construct several
large dams-but there was little information in the area of their particular interest. Some of
these people had been introduced to Dr. Rustin and talked to him on social occasions,
but either they knew nothing about the conspiracy to which he belonged or else they had
blocks in their minds that the detrazine could not penetrate.

By this time, though, the agents' prime targets were all warmed up and ready for them.
Slowly, patiently, Yvette, who was the more experienced of the pair at interrogation,
picked out the story of the conspiracy or at least as much as these people knew. It was
tantalizing and frustrating at the same time.

Both these men knew about the robot-building program. They personally knew of only
four robots that had been constructed, one of which being the one the d'Alemberts had
already destroyed. Of the other three, two were female and the other was male. The
male and one of the females were built to look like natives of some heavy gravity planet


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like DesPlaines but-in reply to a sharp question from Yvette-they had not been made to
duplicate either of the d'Alemberts. Jules and his sister breathed a quiet sigh at that; the
thought had occurred to each of them that perhaps their identities had been discovered
and they were scheduled to be surreptitiously replaced. It was a great relief to learn that