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

through his hair. "Now you've carried yourself through the
next stage. Congratulations, Jo. You've just been promoted!"
"I have?" Jo said incredulously. "I came in here with the
notion that I might get myself fired."
"No. Come around to this side of the desk, Jo, and I'll
play you a little history." Krasna unfolded the desktop to
expose a small visor screen. Obediently Jo rose and went
around the desk to where he could see the blank surface.
"I had a standard indoctrination tape sent up to me a week
ago, in the expectation that you'd be ready to see it. Watch."
Krasna touched the board. A small dot of light appeared
in the center of the screen and went out again. At the same
time, there was a small beep of sound. Then the tape began
to unroll and a picture clarified on the screen.
"As you suspected," Krasna said conversationally, "the
Service is infallible. How it got that way is a story that
started several centuries back.

Dana Ljeher father had been a Hollander, her mother
born in the Celebessat down in the chair which Captain
Robin Weinbaum had indicated, crossed her legs, and waited,
her blue-black hair shining under the lights.
Weinbaum eyed her quizzically. The conqueror Resident
who had given the girl her entirely European name had been
paid in kind, for his daughter's beauty had nothing fair and
Dutch about it. To the eye of the beholder, Dana Lje seemed
a particularly delicate virgin of Bali, despite her Western
name, clothing and assurance. The combination had already
proven piquant for the millions who watched her television
column, and Weinbaum found it no less charming at first
hand.
"As one of your most recent victims," he said, "I'm not
sure that I'm honored, Miss Lje. A few of my wounds are
still bleeding. But I am a good deal puzzled as to why you're
visiting me now. Aren't you afraid that I'll bite back?"
"I had no intention of attacking you personally, and I
don't think I did," the video columnist said seriously. "It
was just pretty plain that our intelligence had slipped badly
in the Erskine affair. It was my job to say so. Obviously
you were going to get hurt, since you're head of the bureau
but there was no malice in it."
"Cold comfort," Weinbaum said dryly. "But thank you,
nevertheless."
The Eurasian girl shrugged. "That isn't what I came here
about, anyway. Tell me, Captain Weinbaumhave you ever
heard of an outfit calling itself Interstellar Information?"
Weinbaum shook his head. "Sounds like a skip-tracing
firm. Not an easy business, these days."
"That's just what I thought when I first saw their letter-
head," Dana said. "But the letter under it wasn't one that