Книга только для ознакомления
. He had been pushed around -- and his strongest reflex was resistance to any authority he had not consented to; it had been burned into his soul with whips. He did not know this -- he just knew that he was going to be stubborn. He decided that Pop would want him to be.
Thought of Pop reminded him of something. Was Rudbek connected, even indirectly, with the slave trade? He realized now why Pop wanted him to hang on -- he could not quit until he knew . . . nor until he had put a stop to it if the unspeakable condition did exist. But how could he find out? He was Rudbek of Rudbek . . . but they had him tied with a thousand threads, like the fellow in that story Pop had told . . . "Gulliver and his Starship," that was it.
Well, let's see. Pop had reported to "X" Corps that there was a tie-up among some big spaceship outfit, the Saigon's government, and the raider-slavetraders. Raiders had to have ships. Ships . . . there was a book he had read last week, Galactic Transport's history of every ship they had built, from #0001 to the latest He went into his library. Hmm . . . tall red book, not a tape.
Confounded thing was missing . . . like a lot of things lately. But he had almost renshawed the book, being interested in ships. He started making notes.
Most of them were in service inside the Hegemony, some in Rudbek interests, some in others. Some of his ships had been sold to the People, a pleasing thought
|
