"Gordon R. Dickson - Time to Teleport" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

TimeTo Teleport



Gordon R. Dickson

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A courier air-sub with the coral red of the Underseas Power Group tipping its wing stubscame diving out
of the blue south sky at a little after noon. It checked, and for the short space of several minutes hung
hovering above the huge floating structure that wasCableIsland , seat of government and political neutral
ground for the Autonomous Groups, symbolically built and anchored in twelve hundred fathoms of chill
sea water above the theoretical midpoint of the old Atlantic cable. Then theIsland signaled clearance; and
the ship dropped gently to the landing deck. From it stepped a boy of less than twenty. He wore a silver
tunic trimmed in red; a sea-green kilt was clipped about his lean waist by a gun-belt and holster from
which a handgun with a coral-red butt protruded. And an ebony-black official courier's cloak clung to the
magnetic shoulder tabs of his tunic, while a courier's pouch with thumb-lock was clamped to his right
forearm.

A lieutenant of the Neutral Guard took charge of him, impounded the gun and checked him through the
scanners. These mechanical watchdogs discovered nothing dangerous either on or within the youngster.
The officer turned him over to two guards with instructions to conduct him to the main council room, and
there deliver him to Eli Johnstone, the spokesman for his group. The two guards saluted, about-faced and
set off smartly, marching in step and rather hurrying the brightly dressed young courier between them. It
was, perhaps, an unnecessary display of military manners; but the five hundredman Neutral Guard were,
after all, the only professional soldiers left on Earth; and you could hardly blame them.

The main council room ofCableIsland occupied the very center of the mammoth structure, being