"Harry Harrison - SSR 08 - The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the " - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"Indeed," he said extending a damp, limp hand for me to shake. "You must be the volunteer with the nom
de guerre of Jim about whose presence I was informed, who would await me here. It was very good of
you to undertake what can only be called a rather diligent and difficult assignment."

"Rather," I intoned, falling into his academic mode of speech. "Is there any remote possibility that I might
be informed of the nature of this assignment?"

"Of course. I have the requisite authority to provide augmentive information to you concerning the history
and tragic circumstance of the loss. Another individual, who shall be nameless, will supply the assistance
that you will require. I shall begin with the circumstances that occurred a little over twenty years ago . . ."

"A beer. I must have refreshment. Will you join me?"

"I abstain from all alcoholic and caffeine-containing beverages." He glared at me glassily through his
menacing monocle as I refilled my mug. I sipped and sat and waved him into action. His voice washed
over me in turgid waves and soon had me half-asleep-but the content of his talk woke me up fast enough.
He went on far too long, with far too many digressions, but despite this it was fascinating stuff to listen to.

A stripped-down version wouldn't have been half as much fun for him and would have taken only a few
minutes to tell. Simply, Galaksia Universitato had sent an 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

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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