"Harrison, Harry- The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

expedition to a reported archeological site on a distant world-where they had
uncovered an artifact of non-human origin.
"You must be kidding," I said. "Mankind has explored a great part of the galaxy
in the last thirty-two thousand years and no trace of an alien race has ever
been found."
He sniffed loudly. "I do not `kid' as you say in your simple demotic. I have
pictorial proof here, photographs sent back by the expedition. The artifact was
uncovered in a stratum at least a million years old and resembles nothing in any
data base existent in the known universe."
He took a print from his inner pocket and passed it over to me. I took it and
looked at it, then turned it around since there was no indication of which was
top or bottom. A twisted hunk of incongruous angles and forms resembling nothing
I had ever seen before.
"It looks alien enough to be alien," I said. Looking at it was beginning to hurt
my eyes so I dropped it onto the table. "What does it do, or what is it made of
or whatever?"
"I haven't the slightest idea since it was never conveyed to the university. It
was, I must say, interrupted in its journey and it is essential that it be
recovered."
"Pretty sloppy way to handle the only alien artifact in the universe.
"That is beyond the scope of my authority and not for me to say. But I am
authorized to unperfunctorily predicate that it must be found and returned. At
any cost which sums I am duly authorized to pay. Officers of the Galactic League
have assured me that you, pseudonymous Jim, have volunteered to find and return
the artifact. They have convinced me that you, ins young as you are, are a
specialist in these matters. I can only wish you best of luck-and look forward
to meeting you again when you return with that which we desire the most."
He exited then and a bald, uniformed naval officer entered m his place. Closed
the door and glared at me with a steely gaze. I glared back.
"Are you the one who is finally going to tell me what is going on?" I asked.
"Damn right," he growled. "Damn fool idea-but the only one we have going. I am
Admiral Benbow, head of League Navy Security. Those dumbhead academics let the
most priceless object in the universe slip through their fingers-now we have to
pick up the pieces and run with the ball."
The Admiral's mixed metaphors were as bad as the professor's academese. Was
clear speaking becoming a lost art?
"Come on," I said. "Simply tell me what happened and what I am supposed to do."
"Right." He slammed down into a chair. "If that is a beer I'll have one too. No
I won't. A double, no a treble high-octane whisky. No ice. Do it."
The robobar supplied our drinks. He drained his while I was just lifting mine.
"Now hear this. The expedition concerned was returning from their planetary dig
when their ship experienced communication difficulties. Worried about navigation
they landed on the nearest planet, which unhappily and tragically turned out to
be Liokukae."
"Why unhappily and tragically?"
"Shut up and listen. We got them and their ship back relatively intact, But
without the artifact. For certain reasons we could do no more. That is why your
services have been engaged."
"So now you are going to tell me about those certain reasons."
He coughed and looked away, stood and refilled his glass before speaking again.