"Ron Goulart - Spacehawk Inc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goulart Ron)

"Twas not merely to save your bacon that I burst in here, though the Mysterious Something
knows I'm glad to do that," said Father Cog. "I was sent by your Uncle Wenzel to bring you home."
"Home?" Kip pointed at the ceiling. "Up to the satellite, you mean?"
The android pointed to the wall on their right.
"Actually, lad, the satellite's orbit pattern should have it in a position about there at thisтАФ"
"What does Uncle Wenzel want?"
"The Mysterious Something only knows. I'm to gather you up and deliver you to the connect-ship
port in time for the next shuttle."
"Oh, sweet dear Kip," said the girl, sitting down on the edge of the bed and crossing her long
lovely legs, "we're to be separated. For weeks, months, perhaps for an eternity."
"I'll be back tomorrow at the latest," Kip assured her.
"How little we know of our own future," said Father Cog.
"You hinting at something?"
"I can only suggest you don't make any appointments for tomorrow, not on this planet anyway."
Kip had been walking toward the seated girl. He stopped now. "Where's he sending me? This
job here was supposed to last... as long as I wanted it to."
"Hum." A small, nervous lizard man in a lycra kimono was standing on the threshold of the hole in
the wall. "Please, Mr. Bundy, Father Cog, don't think I'm ungrateful for all Bundy Konglom Enterprises
has done for Fetlock Estates. On the contrary, this is one of the finest criminal and social misfit
rehabilitation and readjustment centers in the entire Barnum System of planets. However..."
"We'll fix the hole," Kip told him.
"In fact, I have a finger for that," said Father Cog, examining his hands. "No, now that I think of
it, it's a toe."
"Would that it were only a gaping hole ripped out of a lovely wall which was the problem," said
Second Dr. Geechie, the acting head of the rehabilitation center. "Alas, it is not. Oh, no."
"Don't step on the catman," warned the girl.
Second Dr. Geechie had been in the process of climbing in through the hole. "I'm not in any way
bigoted about alternate life-forms. We can't all be lizards, can we? Still, Mr. Bundy, catmen all over the
floor.... It's a dreadful mess for someone to have to clean."
"They tried to kill him," explained the girl. "That's not Kip's fault. They broke in here andтАФ"
"You're looking very fit, young lady," observed the lizardman as he plunged over the prone
catman and into the girl's bedroom. "One would hardly guess that a few scant months ago you were a
notorious brain-tapper."
"Thank you, Second Doctor."
"Which is why it saddens me to see you cavorting with young Bundy here."
"We weren't cavorting, Geechie," said Kip. "And even if we were cavorting, that's not a crime on
this particular planet."
 "I mustn't let my justified wrath get me off the main point." Geechie rubbed his dry green hands
together. "These catmen I see before me ... I know why, or at least I've heard disturbing rumors as to
why they came here to take revenge upon you." "A misunderstanding, Geechie," said Kip, grinning at him
and easing toward the gap in the wall. "I'm not even going to press charges against them."
"The bioenergetics robots," continued the lizard doctor slowly. "The six bioenergetics robots
donated so graciously by your family's company, Mr. Bundy. You tinkered with them."
"They were too stodgy."
"Stodgy they were, perhaps," said Geechie. "Now they are all playing whist, blackjack, coon-can
and honeymoon bridge." He rubbed his scaly hands together once more. "Not only do they play cards
with those patients entrusted to them, but they also cheat at it."
"No, they don't cheat," said Kip. "They beat Murdstone Slim and his cronies fair and square.
See, Slim may be a cardsharp on Murdstone, but this is a more sophisticated planet. He was simply
outclassed by my robots."