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

their covers were still secure.

Neither of the men under the nitrobarb knew what had become of the robots after they
were made, leaving the two operatives as much in the dark as they had been before.

On the matter of the conspiracy in general, the men were equally vague. They took their
orders not from Rustin, who was on about the same organizational level as themselves,
but from a woman they knew only as "Lady A." They had only met her once, and
described her as being exquisitely beautiful and as cold as the backside of an asteroid.
Orders would come from her occasionally, telling them to do certain things that seemed
to make little sense; but they knew they were to carry out their orders to the letter, doing
no more and no less. For this they were paid quite well indeed.

Yes, they said, the golden necklaces with the integrated circuit chips were identification
symbols of the conspirators. No, they were not sure whether Lady A was in charge of
the entire conspiracy or not; they did recall Dr. Rustin mentioning someone else from
whom he took orders, and whom he referred to as "he." The d'Alemberts could get no
further information on that point, and could not conclude whether the doctor was referring
to his lord-Duke Fyodor-or to some other figure in the treasonous hierarchy.

As information went, it was pitifully slight. But it was more than they had arrived with, and
so they could count this raid as a success. "It'll take a lot more successes like this before
we start getting anywhere, though," Yvette commented sarcastically.

They left the house the same way they had entered, climbing up the rope to the top of
the cliff where their groundcar was parked. This vehicle looked vaguely like a flashy
sports model Frascati, but was in reality a Mark Forty-One Service Special capable of
converting into a private flying craft. The d'Alemberts had utilized it as such to approach
this out-of-the-way location, and they did so again in leaving. As they flew along, Jules
radioed in to the local SOTE offices, using only his code name, Wombat, and described
the situation at the house as they had left it. The thought of the interrogation tapes
instantly excited the personnel at the agency, who had been trying to get solid
information on these people for quite some time. The tapes would give the local
authorities enough clues to definitely nail convictions on each of these gang leaders-and
Mellisande would be a cleaner place to live for a while.

The d'Alemberts left the tapes at a safe drop point and continued along the ground to the
spaceport where their private two-person ship, La Comete Cuivre, was waiting. Its
burnished hull was a comforting sight for the pair of tired agents. Jules drove the car up
the ramp and snugged it into its special berth in the lower portion of the vessel. The. two
climbed out of the car, all set to grab a quick shower and catch up on some much
needed sleep.

But they found that sleep was not programmed for them for quite some time yet. On their
message recorder, a red light was blinking furiously. Punching the required button, Yvette
discovered that the message was from the Head himself, with a Class Five priority. The
siblings exchanged worried glances. Class Five was urgent. The message went on to
say that they were to beam a scrambled call back to Earth, using the Head's own private
number-and that they were to do so immediately upon their return.