"Blish, James - Beep" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

if reluctantly. He wondered what would happen were he to
pull away the false mustache, pitch the newspaper on the
grass, and bound away with a joyous whoop. He suspected
that the course of history would not be deflected by even a
second of arc, but he was not minded to try the experiment.
The park was pleasant. The twin suns warmed the path
and the greenery without any of the blasting heat which they
would bring to bear later in the summer. Randolph was
altogether the most comfortable planet he had visited in
years. A little backward, perhaps, but restful, too.
It was also slightly over a hundred light-years away from
Earth. It would be interesting to know how Service head-
quarters on Earth could have known in advance that boy
would meet girl at a certain spot on Randolph, precisely
at 14:58:03.
Or how Service headquarters could have ambushed with
micrometric precision a major interstellar fleet, with no more
preparation than a few days' buildup in the newspapers and
video could evidence.
The press was free, on Randolph as everywhere. It reported
the news it got. Any emergency concentration of Service
ships in the Black Horse area, or anywhere else, would have
been noticed and reported on. The Service did not forbid
such reports for "security" reasons or for any other reasons.
Yet there had been nothing to report but that (a) an armada
of staggering size had erupted with no real warning from the
Black Horse Nebula, and that (b) the Service had been ready.
By now, it was a commonplace that the Service was always
ready. It had not had a defect or a failure in well over two
centuries. It had not even had a fiasco, the alarming-sounding
technical word by which it referred to the possibility that a
boy-meets-girl assignment might not come off.
Jo hailed a hopper. Once inside he stripped himself of the
mustache, the bald spot, the forehead creasesall the make-
up which had given him his mask of friendly innocuousness.
The hoppy watched the whole process in the rear-view
mirror. Jo glanced up and met his eyes.
"Pardon me, mister, but I figured you didn't care if I saw
you. You must be a Service man."
"That's right. Take me to Service HQ, will you?"
"Sure enough." The hoppy gunned his machine. It rose
smoothly to the express level. "First time I ever got close to
a Service man. Didn't hardly believe it at first when I saw
you taking your face off. You sure looked different."
"Have to, sometimes," Jo said, preoccupied.
"I'll bet. No wonder you know all about everything before
it breaks. You must have a thousand faces each, your own
mother wouldn't know you, eh? Don't you care if I know
about your snooping around in disguise?"
Jo grinned. The grin created a tiny pulling sensation across