"Edmond Hamilton - The Three Planeteers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

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A half-hour later, the three comrades were two miles across the city from the spaceport, having threaded
devious ways to avoid the omnipresent spy-plates of the police.

"Spy-platesтАЭ were televisor eyes mounted throughout the city, some openly but many more cunningly
concealed, by which police headquarters could keep watch on all parts of the metropolis.

The Planeteers entered the deep shadow of tall trees that bordered extensive grounds. Through the trees
glimmered the lighted windows of a magnificent metal mansion. The three comrades moved soundlessly
as phantoms toward it.

The mansion was the official residence of the Chairman of the Earth Government. It was on a scale
commensurate with the dignity of the elected executive of the planet. The huge tower that housed the
Earth Government itself soared into the starlight from a great park nearby.

The Planeteers met no guards as they slipped cautiously toward the rear of the impressive mansion.
There was a broad terrace here, splashed with blue-white light from a single window. John Thorn and his
comrades stole up onto the terrace toward that window.

Thorn peered tautly into the lighted room. It was a small, paneled study. The only furniture was a big
desk which lay in the blue-white pool of a krypton lamp. A gray-haired man sat at this desk, writing.
"It's the Chairman,тАЭ Thorn whispered. тАЬAnd he's alone."

"Good,тАЭ muttered Gunner Welk. тАЬThat makes it easier!"

Thorn gently reached and pushed on the window. It was unlocked, and swung inward on soundless
hinges. He stepped silently in upon the soft rug, and Sual Av and Gunner Welk followed as noiselessly.

The man at the desk suddenly looked up. His haggard, aging face stiffened as he beheld, ten feet from
him, the three silent menтАФthe lean, browned young Earthman, the bald, bow-legged Venusian, and the
towering, hard-faced Mercurian.

"The Planeteers!тАЭ exclaimed the Chairman, rising to his feet. тАЬThank God, you're here!"
 CHAPTER II
Cold-World Menace
THE career of the Three Planeteers had begun four years previously, in 2952.

That year had seen the splitting of the eight independent inhabited worlds of the Solar System into two
hostile alliances. The great and powerful League of Cold Worlds had been formed by Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune, under a ruthless, ambitious dictator. Feeling themselves menaced, Mercury, Venus,
Earth and Mars had formed the Inner Alliance. The Alliance had sent out many spies to gain information
of the League's threatening plans, but nearly all of them had rapidly been detected and executed.

Then John Thorn, captain in the Earth Navy, had conceived his patriotic plan. He and two friends, Sual
Av, Venusian engineer, and Gunner Welk, Mercurian adventurer, would go forth into the underworld of
the system as outlaws. And as fugitives from the law, they would never be suspected of being agents of
the Alliance.

The three friends had deliberately established criminal records. Thorn had deserted from the Earth Navy.
Sual Av had fled after supposedly embezzling a great sumтАФa sum which was being secretly held in trust