"Randall Garrett - His Master's Voice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Garrett Randall)

"You know what my fees are, Mr. Ravenhurst. That's what you'll be charged. I'll expect to be paid
weekly; if Viking goes broke, I don't want to lose more than a week's pay. On the other hand, if the
MGYR-8 is successful, I will expect a substantial bonus."

"How much?"

"Exactly half of the cost of rebuilding. Half what it would take to build a Model 8 right now, and
taking a chance on there being no bugs in it."

He considered that, looking grimmer than ever. Then he said: "I will do it on the condition that the
bonus be paid off in installments, one each six months for three years after the first successful commercial
ship is built by Viking."

"My lawyer will nail you down on that wording," I said, "but it's a deal. Is these anything else?"

"No."

"Then I think I'll leave for Ceres before you break a blood vessel."

"You continue to amaze me, Mr. Oak," he said. And the soft oiliness of his voice was the oil of vitriol.
"Your compassion for your fellow man is a facet of your personality that I had had not seen before. I
shall welcome the opportunity to relax and allow my blood pressure to subside."

I could almost see Shalimar Ravenhurst suddenly exploding and adding his own touch of color to the
room.

And, on that gruesome thought, I left. I let him have his small verbal triumph; if he'd known that I'd
have taken on the job for almost nothing, he'd really have blown up.


Ten minutes later, I was in my vacuum suit, walking across the glaring, rough-polished rectangle of
metal that was the landing field of Raven's Rest. The sun was near the zenith in the black,
diamond-dusted sky, and the shadow of my flitterboat stood out like an inkblot on a bridal gown. I
climbed in, started the engine, and released the magnetic anchor that held the little boat to the surface of
the nickel-iron planetoid. I lifted her gently, worked her around until I was stationary in relation to the
spinning planetoid, oriented myself against the stellar background, and headed toward the first blinker
beacon on refway to Ceres.

For obvious economical reasons, it is impractical to use full-sized spaceships in the Belt. A flitterboat,
with a single gravitoinertial engine and the few necessities of lifeтАФair, some water, and a very little
foodтАФstill costs more than a Rolls-Royce automobile does does on Earth, but there has to be some sort
of individual transportation the Belt.

They can't be used for any great distance because a man can't stay in a vac suit very long without
getting uncomfortable. You have to hop from beacon to beacon, which means that your average velocity
doesn't amount to much, since you spend too much time accelerating and decelerating. But a flitterboat is
enough to get around the neighborhood in, and that's all that's needed.

I got the GM-187 blinker in my sights, eased the acceleration up to one gee, relaxed to watch the