"HARRISON, Harry - 04 - The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You(V1.0)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"No. I have the strong feeling that feeding a normal patrol ship into this situation will be like asking them to take a stroll through the guts of an atomic pile."

"A confused description--but I get the message."

"I hope so. You are the crookedest agent I know. You have a sense of survival that, so far, has made you unkillable. I am banking on that and the hideously twisted convolutions of your warped mind to get you through. So get out there and see what the hell is happening, and get back with a report."

"Do I have to bring the admirals back?"

"Only if you want to. We have plenty more where they came from."

"You are heartless and cruel, Inskipp, and as big a crook as I am."

"Of course. How else do you think I run this outfit? When do you leave and what do you need?"

I had to think about that. I couldn't go without telling my Angelina, and once she learned how dangerous it would be she would insist on coming. Fine. I'm a male chauvinist pig at heart, but I know true talent when I see it and I would rather have her with me than all of the rest of the Special Corps. But what about the boys? The answer to that was obvious as well. With their natural bent and inherited characteristics they were fit only for lives of crime or careers in the Corps. They would have to be blooded sometime and this looked very much like the time. So it was settled. I unglazed my eyes and realized that I had been muttering to myself for some minutes and that InSkipp was looking at me in a very suspicious manner and reaching slowly for the scramble button on his desk. I groped through my memory for the question he had asked me before I had sunk into my coma.

"Ahh, yes, hmmm, of course. I leave soonest, I have my own crew, but I want a fully automated grinder-class cruiser with all armaments, et cetera."

"Done. It will take twenty hours to get one here. You have that long to pack and write a new will."

"How charming of you. I will need but one psi call."

I set it up with the communication center who were on to the operator on Blodgett like a flash and a line hooked through seconds later to Angelina.

"Hello, my sweet," I said. "Guess where we are going for our holiday?"



FIVE


"It's a fine ship, Dad," Bolivar said, running his eyes appreciatively over the varied controls of the L. C. Gnasher.

"I hope so. These grinder-class cruisers are supposed to be the best in space."

"Central fire controls and all, wow," James said, thumbing a button before I could stop him.

"You didn't have to blast that hunk of space rock, it wasn't doing you any harm," I complained, switching the gun controls to my pilot's position before he could Cause any more trouble.

"Boys will be boys," Angelina said, looking on with motherly pride.

"Well, they can be boys with their own pocket money. Do you know how many thousands of credits it costs every time those energy cannon are fired?"

"No, nor do I care." She raised one delicate eyebrow. "And since when have you cared, Slippery Jim, plunderer of the public pocket?"

I muttered something and turned back to the instrument displays. Did I really care? Or was it just fatherly reflex? No--it was authority! "I'm captain and the crew can but obey."

"Shall we all walk the plank, dear?" Angelina asked in her most unreasonable tone. I changed the subject.

"Look. If you will all kindly sit over there I will order up a bottle of champagne and a chocolate cake and we will relax a bit before this mission begins and I start cracking the whip."