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

A light began flashing on his desk, startling him out of this reverie. Lady A noticed it, too.
"What's that about?" she asked.

Garst reached across the desktop and punched some computer key buttons. "It's a
signal from Admissions," he announced after a moment.

"Trouble?"

"Probably nothing. We're just having a new shipload coming in today, and I usually get at
least one checkup per ship. I've left standing orders that anything in the least bit
suspicious is to be referred to me, so that I can make a decision personally. I like to
keep on top of my entire organization-it's what makes me so successful." He neglected
to add that, since the breakup of his robbery and murder ring on Vesa, he was extremely
paranoid about detection. He wanted to stop problems before they had a chance to
start.

Flipping a couple more switches, Garst turned on the monitors so that he could view the
scene at the admitting gate. Out of courtesy to his visitor, he swivelled the set around so
that she could see, too.

Both of them watched and listened in silence as Hazel Whiting had her interview with the
clerk. They noted the brief but vicious fight in the line with the overzealous male, and
Garst gave a low whistle of appreciation at the woman's talent for self-defense. "That
Hazel Whiting can certainly handle herself well," he said as the subject moved down the
corridor and out of the camera's view.

"That she can," acknowledged Lady A icily. "Except her name is not Hazel Whiting-it's
Helena von Wilmenhorst."

There was a pause as she let Garst digest that morsel. "Any relation to the Grand
Duke?" he asked at last. "Only his daughter," replied Lady A from the heights of cold
sarcasm. "And his heir."

Garst was both impressed and puzzled. The von Wilmenhorst family owned Sector Four,
one of the richest areas of human-occupied space. One day, Helena von Wilmenhorst
would control the destinies of over a hundred planets, subject only to the orders of the
Throne. "But how did she get here and what does she want?" he mused aloud.

"As to the first," Lady A drawled, "I imagine it must be some flaw in this vaunted
organization you've been telling me about. She is hardly the sort of character we should
be catering to, and I suspect someone along the way was bribed to let her come. As to
the second . . ." She paused to consider something, and finally decided to trust Garst
enough to say it.

"As to the second, you will have to know one additional fact about her father: Zander von
Wilmenhorst is the Head of the Service of the Empire."

Garst stared at her in disbelief. The Service of the Empire, or SOTE, was virtually the
right arm of the Emperor himself. It was the most elite intelligence gathering network
ever assembled by mankind, dedicated to enforcing Imperial policies and staffed only by