"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 9 - The Omicron Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

Empress, seeking the heart of the matter quickly, said, "What's the problem, Zander?"

The Head relayed the story of his daughter's encounter with Lady A in the darkened apartment.
The Empress listened soberly and, when he was done, asked, "Is there some other threat to the Empire?
What does she mean about Omicron?"

"That was the first thing I checked. Sometime in the last fifty hours, all communications with
Omicron ceased. Routine traffic has stopped, there have been no outgoing calls, and incoming calls are not
acknowledged. I've checked with the Navy, and they tell me they've heard nothing from the base there in a
couple of days. As far as anyone can tell, it's as though Omicron suddenly ceased to exist."

"Is the conspiracy responsible?"

"It's a possibility, of course, but I'm not sure. Lady A was talking about an outside threat to the
Empire from some mysterious third party. She seems to be pointing this out as an example."

"How did she know about Omicron before we did?"

"A very good question. We know she has an intelligence network of her own, a damned good one.
Perhaps this is one occasion where her people happened to be in the right spot at just the right time to
learn something we didn't. I still don't like it, though, any more than you do. I take pride in the Service's
reputation. We're supposed to know about trouble before it happens, not after we're told about it by our
arch-enemies. I intend to conduct a probe into why this information came to us so late."

The Empress nodded. Knowing von Wilmenhorst as she did, she was confident he'd find the
reason behind the delay and correct it so it would not be a problem in the future. But there were other
problems to deal with in the meantime.

"What could have happened on Omicron?" she asked.

The Head sighed. "At the moment, your guess is as good as mine. It seems a good bet that Lady A
knows more than we do right now, and she doesn't like what she knows. She's a woman who doesn't scare
easily . . ."

"You think she's scared now?"

"It looks that way to me," von Wilmenhorst nodded. "Despite her bravado with Helena, her
actions strike me as being inspired by worry. We know how much she hates SOTE; we've hounded her for
seventy years, ever since her nasty liaison with your grandfather. Oh, she's not quaking in unreasoning
terror, I grant you—but it would take a serious threat to her own security to offer us an alliance."
 The Empress paused to reflect on the matter. "What if this is just another one of her tricks,
Zander?"

Von Wilmenhorst nodded again. "We know she's a crafty woman. She outmaneuvered us badly at
your coronation and nearly managed another double-blind when she made me look like a traitor. It's been
a quiet year and a half since then, entirely too quiet. I'm sure she has some tricks prepared for us, but
whether this is one of them or not I can't say just yet. As always, she's given us just the most tantalizing
little snip of information and left us panting for more. I'll need further input before I know how to react."

"What do you propose to do?" Edna Stanley asked.