"SD Gottesman - Firepower" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gotlieb Phyllis)

wavered from him to the speaker.
The Wing Commander dived right after him "Where are you?" he called into the
darkness. "Don't be a damned fool!"
The only answer was a slug zipping past his ear.
"Bartok." hissed Voss from the blackness, "this is your last adventure. I can
see you and you can't see me. Good-bye, Bartok."
THERE WAS a sickening crunch from the blackness and a gasp that sounded like a
tin can in labor. "The poor, damned fool," said Bartok. One of the living
statues had stepped on the man's head in the course of some intricate pas seul.
Bartok had known it would happen, for the periodicity of the statues was limited
to this: in the course of two minutes and forty seconds every square foot of the
dancing platform was trodden on at least once by at least one of the two-ton
feet of the statues.
Meanwhile the remainder of the guard of honor was vainly trying to fire unloaded
handguns--except one slender young man who simply grinned like a cat.
"Okay Babe," said Bartok to the slender young man. "You do it."
"With pleasure!"
As the Admiral had just got around to the choosing of his palace planet--nothing
less than an entire planet would do for his regal estates--he too felt a gun in
his ribs. He stopped short.
"Read this," said the slender young man, who was trying to keep from giggling.
Without ado of any sort the Admiral placed the paper on the lectern before him
and read in flat, colorless tones:
"I hereby declare that I personally had no such nonsense in mind. It was the
work of my secretary. I hereby state that I assume no powers beyond my naval
duties.
"General Order to All Officers: any seditious talk of taking over will be dealt
with by the Intelligence Wing which is--ulp!--hereby constituted as supreme
police authority over the Navy.
"Memorandum to Wing Commanders: you will turn over all insignia of your office
to representatives of the Intelligence Wing who will make themselves known to
you."
In a very small voice he said: "That is all," and deflated into a chair. There
was a titanic roar of applause from the assembled peoples of New Metropole.
"Darling," said Babe, "if the timing doesn't come off right--if those people I
contacted don't show up to the Wing Commanders soon enough, before they
recover--!"
"They will," said Bartok. He laughed shortly, like the closing of a heavy lock.
"What's funny?"
"They--they--had the guns and we didn't have a thing but ourselves. Sweet, this
is one stunt they'll never try again."
The crowd, still applauding, began to disperse into the night.
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