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

detailed and complete. Except, that the leader of the Temple of Eternal Truth, one Master
Fanyimadu, is, well..."
His voice ran down and he stared at his desktop. I finished the sentence for him.
"Master Fanyimadu does not appear in any entry in any of your records."
He nodded without looking up. "We know his place of residence and have documented his
attendance at the temple. However to preserve religious freedom we have done no more than that."
"No investigations? No cross-reference with Immigration or Criminal Affairs?"
He shook his head in silence. I glowered. "Let me guess. You don't know how he came to
this planet, or if he is still here-or if he has left. Is that correct?"
"There has been. . . a certain failure of communication, an oversight."
"Oversight!" I exploded, jumping to my feet and stamping the length of the room and back.
"Oversight! Fire and blood and an explosion, a woman in the hospital and my wife vanished-and you
call that oversight!"
"There is no need to lose your temper-"
"Yes there is!"
"-we are proceeding with the investigation and have already made some progress." He
ignored my sneer. "The blood found in the temple has been subjected to analysis down to the
molecular and subatomic levels. These results have been compared to those of everyone on this
planet. We keep complete health and hospital records as you might imagine. Computers are accessing
this immense data base at the present moment. When I called you earlier the search had been
narrowed to less than twenty possibilities. As we talked I have been following the progress on
this readout." He tapped the screen on the desk. "The exacting comparison has now been reduced to
five. No- four. Wait-there are only three now, And two of them are women! And that remaining man
is..."
As he tore the slip from his printout we turned as one and raced for the door.
"Who?" I shouted as we ran. He read without breaking his stride.
"Professor Justin Slakey."
"Where?"
"Under sixty seconds' flight from here."
At least he was right about that. The copter was airborne even as we fell through its
door. The military must have had the news the instant that the police did because a cover of
military jets roared by above us. Even before we began our descent we could see that copcopters
were already hitting the ground and unloading troops to surround the house. Rotors roaring we
dropped down onto the stone-flagged patio. Cohn had produced a large gun and was a fraction of a
second ahead of me as we kicked open the doors.
The house was empty, the bird flown.
A suitcase was obviously missing, a gaping hole like a missing tooth from what had been a
row of four in the bedroom closet. The garage door gaped open. A commofficer strode in, saluting
as he pulled a printout from his chest pack.
"Gone, sir," he said. Collin snarled as he grabbed the sheet.
"Professor J. Slakey, passenger on the stellar liner Star of Serendipity. Departed. . ."
He looked up and his face was grim. "A little over an hour ago."
"So they are already in warpdrive and cannot be contacted until they emerge." I considered


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the possibilities. "You will of course be in touch with the authorities at their scheduled
destination. Which is an operation that might work normally-but this is not a normal situation. I