"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 7 - Planet of treachery" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

Lady A nodded slowly. However insubordinate Shen might be, he knew his job. "I am not
asking you to abandon your raids; you're your own master there. But I do ask that you


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pick your targets more carefully. And for your sake-for all our sakes-don't use so many
ex-criminals. If they're caught, they can give away the scope of our endeavor."

Shen smiled. "You need both cons and piracy to make a conspiracy."

There was a pause of two full beats before Lady A said, "I will not dignify that with a
response."

"I didn't think you would. Would you care for an inspection tour instead?" - Lady A
agreed, and followed her admiral around the base, giving it a thorough examination.
Shen's comment about bad luck happening to all of them had hit her harder than she
would ever have admitted. Although the Service of the Empire had stumbled across the
conspiracy very late in the game-too late, she was sure, to stop it effectively-they had
scored a few lucky successes lately against her... too many. They had not yet even
scratched the frost on the tip of the iceberg, but they were becoming annoying. The
Service and its agents were like an insect bite, an itch she couldn't scratch-hardly fatal,
but they did distract her and take some of her concentration away from more important
matters.

She dismissed the thought from her mind. Plans were afoot to deal with SOTE, to use
the very cleverness of its own agents against itself. All would be taken care of in good
time, and Operation Annihilate would soon be in action once more. She did not bother
telling Shen any of this, however; it was never a good policy to let an inferior know any
more than he needed to operate efficiently.

Chapter 2
Luna Base

Luna Base was the central command headquarters of the Imperial Navy. At the very
formation of the Empire of Earth, the decision had been made that the control center of
the Empire's armed forces should be located far from any inhabited regions; that way, in
case of attack, the populace around the base could not be held hostage for the base
itself. The population of Earth at that time had been close to four and a half billion, and
there simply were no suitable land areas left that were far enough from inhabited
regions. Locating the base underwater would have posed additional complications-chiefly
in terms of communications and readiness of ships for instant takeoff-and so that
possibility was discarded as well. Since Earth was to be the seat of imperial government,
military headquarters had to be nearby-leaving as the only two alternatives either the
moon or a station in free space.

Each alternative had both its champions and its detractors. The lunar enthusiasts argued
that a space station would be far too exposed to enemy attack; on the moon, they could