"Harry Harrison - SSR 09 - The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to He" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

He poured a drink for me, his already in hand, and I reported the progress or lack of it
by the police. Then he spoke the words we had been both avoiding.
"I'm sure Mom is all right. Disappeared, yes. In trouble, undoubtedly. But she is the
toughest one in the family."
"She is, of course, comes up aces always." I tried, to keep the gloom from my voice, could
not. He grabbed my shoulder, very hard.
"Something terrible has happened. But that Rowena women said gone--not dead. So we get to
work to find her and that is that."
"Right." I heard the roughness in my voice; a sentimental old gray rat. Enough. "We'll do


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it. If the diGriz clan can't do it-it can't be done."
"Damn right! I have a message from Bolivar. He should be here very soon. He was in a
spacer doing a lunar geological survey. Dropped everything and should be in faster than light
drive by now."
"Lunar geology? That's a change. I thought he had become a stockbroker?"
"He was-found it too boring. When he had stacked away his millions, more profits than
those of his clients I am sure, he burnt his business suits and bought a spacer. What do we do
next."
"Top up this drink, if you please." I dropped into a chair. "Fill it with one-hundred-
proof Old Cogitation Juice. We have some work to do."
"Like what?"
"Like first forgetting about collaboration with the authorities. They have got this
investigation completely wrong so far and can only get it worse."
"And we can do better." He said it as a fact-not a question.
"That's for sure. The bureaucrats are going to do an incredibly detailed and thorough
search for this Slakey. We are not." I saw his eyebrows rise and I had to smile. "If their search
is successful, which I doubt, we will bear about it quickly enough. Meanwhile we want to find out
everything we can about the Temple of Eternal Truth. We go to the horse's mouth, so to speak. The
church members will tell us what we want to know." I waved the membership list I had extracted
from the police with not too much difficulty. "There are three of these ladies whom we are very
closely acquainted with. Shall we begin?"
"As soon as I dipil my face and get a clean shirt. I'm a handsome devil and have a way
with women."
I sighed happily. Some might have called this braggadocio, but I saw it as simply speaking
the truth. In this family we do not condone false modesty. "You do that. Meanwhile I'll fire up
the family car."
An expression empty of meaning since this healthy planet had what was probably the most
rigidly enforced clean air act in the galaxy. You would probably get clapped in jail for even
thinking about an infernal combustion engine. Vehicles were powered by atomic or electric
batteries. Or, like our luxurious Spreadeagle, they ran on the energy stored in a flywheel. It
plugged into the electricity supply at night and the motor was run up to speed. During the day the
motor became a generator and the spinning wheel generated electricity for the driving wheels. All
six of them. A heavy flywheel made for a big car- I had stinted on nothing. The robot driver
tooled the thing out of the garage when I whistled, nodding his plastic head and smiling inanely.
The gold plated door to the passenger compartment lifted heavenward while soft, welcoming music
played.