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

a private-eye outfit would write. Let me read part of it to
you."
Her slim fingers burrowed in her inside jacket pocket and
emerged again with a single sheet of paper. It was plain
typewriter bond, Weinbaum noted automatically: she had
brought only a copy with her, and had left the original of
the letter at home. The copy, then, would be incomplete
probably seriously.
"It goes like this: 'Dear Miss Lje: As a syndicated video
commentator with a wide audience and heavy responsibilities,
you need the best sources of information available. We would
like you to test our service, free of charge, in the hope of
proving to you that it is superior to any other source of news
on Earth. Therefore, we offer below several predictions
concerning events to come in the Hercules and the so-called
"Three Ghosts" areas. If these predictions are fulfilled 100
per centno lesswe ask that you take us on as your cor-
respondents for those areas, at rates to be agreed upon later.
If the predictions are wrong in any respect, you need not
consider us further.' "
"H'm," Weinbaum said slowly. "They're confident cusses
and that's an odd juxtaposition. The Three Ghosts make
up only a little solar system, while the Hercules area could
include the entire star clusteror maybe even the whole
constellation, which is a hell of a lot of sky. This outfit
seems to be trying to tell you that it has thousands of field
correspondents of its own, maybe as many as the government
itself. If so, I'll guarantee that they're bragging."
"That may well be so. But before you make up your mind,
let me read you one of the two predictions." The letter
rustled in Dana Lje's hand. '"At 03:16:10, on Year Day,
2090, the Hess-type interstellar liner Brindisi will be attacked
in the neighborhood of the Three Ghosts system by
four' "
Weinbaum sat bolt upright in his swivel chair. "Let me
see that letter!" he said, his voice harsh with repressed alarm.
"In a moment," the girl said, adjusting her skirt com-
posedly. "Evidently I was right in riding my hunch. Let me
go on reading: 'by four heavily armed vessels flying the
lights of the navy of Hammersmith II. The position of the
liner at that time will be at coded co-ordinates 88-A-theta-
88-aleph-D and-per-se-and. It will' "
"Miss Lje," Weinbaum said. "I'm sorry to interrupt you
again, but what you've said already would justify me in
jailing you at once, no matter how loudly your sponsors
might scream. I don't know about this Interstellar Information
outfit, or whether or not you did receive any such letter as
the one you pretend to be quoting. But I can tell you that
you've shown yourself to be in possession of information
that only yours truly and four other men are supposed to