"Ron Goulart - Hello, Lemuria, Hello" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goulart Ron)

"It's been number one on the Manhattan News-Times for the past eleven weeks," Wizard
pointed out while taking a bite of her candy bar. "Shoved aside I Blew The President, Harlan
Ellison: Man Mountain Of Literature, So You're Going To Commit Incest and Aquanetics."
"Very impressive," Conger was scanning the countryside below. "There's the fairgrounds." He
punched out a landing pattern on the skycar dash.
"What's the book have to do with Indian Thugs coming after me?"
"Well, obviously these yoohoos know you're going to work for WTD again."
"They couldn't know anything like that, it's a condition contrary to fact," said Conger. "I am
officially retired, as we both well know."
HELLO, LEMURIA, HELLO 5


"I reviewed your status with you just prior to your lending a hand on that Panchronicon Plot
mess," said Geer from the backseat. "Technically you are still a WTD employee, Jake. Matter of
fact, a lot of the halfwits in the Remedial Functions Agency, which is after all our parent
organization, were quite favorably impressed with the way you handled the Panchronicon deal.
They may even be on the verge of forgetting the colossal screwup you perpetrated whilst pursuing
the Sandman matter. One or two more impressive accomplishments will assureтАФ"
"Why Angelica? How come anybody wants to kill her, too?"
"These particular yoohoos are ruthless. They obviously figure, to be on the safe side, it's best to
knock both of you off before you can come to my aid."
"Angelica is retired, too."
"Okay, but the Lemurians may not believe that."
"Lemurians?" The skycar bounced down onto a fairground landing lot. "There are no such
things as Lemurians. Except in that dumb book. Don't tell me youтАФ"
Kaboom!
Boomy! Boom!
A quarter of a mile away a skycar exploded, sending sooty smoke and jagged shards of bright
blue plastic up into the day.
6 RON GOULART



Chapter 2
Conger got there first. Running across the lot, zigzagging between skycars. He'd recognized
those scattering fragments. It was their other skycar. The one his wife had flown here this morning.
Robot cops were already there. Five of the tank-shaped ones, forming a half-circle around the
smoking debris. Two of them were spraying flamekilling foam out of nozzle-tipped arms.
"Back! No rubbernecking!" another of them ordered Conger, truncheon rising warningly.
"My wife," he said. "That's our car."
"Sympathies," said the robot cop out of the voice hole in his headless gunmetal torso.
"Sympathies not called for," said the robot with the sergeant stripes stenciled on his backside.
"No humans in ship at time of explosion."
"You sure?"
"I'm built to be sure, buddy. My sensors tell me no humans in that crate."
"Then whereтАФ"
"We'll want to talk to your missus. Find out why she allowed her machine to explode in
publicтАФ"
"Jake!"
He spun and saw his slim, dark-haired wife rising up from between two nearby skycars. He ran,