"Gardner F. Fox - Temptress Of The Time Flow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fox Gardner F)

TEMPTRESS OF THE TIME FLOW
By Gardner F. Fox
In one swift motion, Trenton twisted Theg downward...
Yes, they'd turned Trenton into a hardbitten space tramp, the breed
that beat from Earth to Antares or any other of the seventeen star ports,
peddling his disintor or his muscles to the highest bidder.....Could such a
monster be loyal to the lovely, gentle golden girl who wanted peace for the
universe? Would not he succumb finally to the lure of exciting, red-lipped,
red-haired Drayatha and the conquest of all time and space she
promised?
Was this the end of the universe? Timely, mind-shattering book-length
space-adventure novel!


CHAPTER I
TRENTON WAS dead, legally. He stood in the bare room that was filled
with a roseate, diffused light. There was a plain desk and chair in the far
corner above a dark maroon rug on the floor. Two richly colored prints
hung across the room from him. He twisted the brim of his space cap in
nervous fingers.
The girl receptionist came through the door and smiled at him. "The
Interrogator will see you now."
Trenton went past her, catching a faint tint of her expensive Venusian
perfume. She smiled at him and closed the door as he went into the next
room.
"I'm here," Trenton announced. There was a quaver in his voice. He
didn't like what they were going to ask him to do. It was an honor, in a
way; but as far as he was concerned, they could keep their honors.
The Interrogator looked up from a pile of papers he was fitting into a
maroon folder. He was an Earth man, with the deep tan of space on his
cheeks and forehead. Auburn hair ringed his bald head. Dark blue eyes
lifted from the papers to look at Trenton.
"Sit down, captain. You've been through the Extermination Chamber
Office?"
"I'm dead, as far as the world's concerned," said Trenton dully. "They
took my papers, bankbook and will. I left a complete resume of my life. I
filled out all the forms and signed all the papers."
The Interrogator coughed. "You left a good name behind you, captain.
Let's see. Spaceship lieutenant at nineteen. Captain at twenty-three. You
smashed the swamp piracies on Mars. You won the Space Medal last year
for bravery over and above the call of duty. Right?"
Trenton smiled wryly. "They're mailing it to my sister."
"You don't have a sister any more, captain. Not even a name. It's safest
that way. Then, too, there will be the plastic operation on your face.
Anybody special you'd care to resemble?"
Trenton shook his head. He asked hesitantly, "I suppose there's a reason
for--all this?"
The Interrogator leaned across the glass top of his twill desk. He rasped,
"Reason? The best reason in the world. Any minute, any second...our
universe is going to puff out of existence! Is that reason enough?"