"Heinlein, Robert A- Space Family Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

Castor hesitated and glanced at Pollux. They had known Jefferson James for some time, having bowled against him in the city league. He was an old Moon hand but not a native, having come to Luna before they were born to gather color for a novel. The novel was still unfinished.
Pollux nodded. Castor said, 'Jeff, can you keep a secret?'
'Certainly - but permit me to point out that these radios are not directional. See your attorney before admitting any criminal act or intention.'
Castor looked around; aside from two tractor trucks in the distance no one seemed to be in line-of-sight. 'We're going into business.'
'When were you out of it?'
'This is a new line - interplanetary trade. We're going to buy our own ship and run it ourselves.'
The driver whistled. 'Remind me to sell Four-Planet Export short. When does this blitz take place?'
'We're shopping for a ship now. Know of a good buy?'
'I'll alert my spies.' He shut up, being busy thereafter with the heavier traffic near the spaceport. Presently he said, 'Here's your stop.' As the boys climbed down from the rack of the truck he added, 'If you need a crewman, keep me in mind.'
'Okay, Jeff. And thanks for the lift.'
Despite the lift they were late. A squad of marine M.P.s heading into the city on duty pre-empted the first tube car; by the time the next arrived the ship from Earth had grounded and its passengers took priority Thereafter they got tangled with the changing shift from the synthetics plant. It was well past suppertime when they arrived at their family's apartment a half mile down inside Luna city
Mr Stone looked up as they came in 'Well! the star boarders,' he announced. He was sitting with a small recorder in his lap, a throat mike clipped to his neck.
'Dad' it was unavoidable,' Castor began. 'We -'
'It always is,' his father cut in. 'Never mind the details. Your dinner is in the cozy. I wanted to send it back but your mother went soft and didn't let me.'
Dr Stone looked up from the far end of the living room, where she was modelling a head of their older sister, Meade. 'Correction', she said. 'Your father went soft; I would have let you starve. Meade, quit turning your head.'
'Check,' announced their four-year old brother and got up from the floor where he had been playing chess with their grand mother. He ran towards them. 'Hey, Cas, Pol - where you been? Did you go to the port? Why didn't you take me? Did you bring me anything?'
Castor swung him up by his heels and held him upside down. 'Yes. No. Maybe. And why should we? Here, Pol - catch.' He sailed the child through the air; his twin reached out and caught him, still by the heels.
'Check yourself,' announced Grandmother, 'and mate in three moves. Shouldn't let your social life distract you from your gaane, Lowell.'
The youngster looked back at the board from his upside down position. 'Wrong, Hazel. Now I let you take my queen, then - Blammie!'
His grandmother looked again at the board. 'Huh? Wait a minute - suppose I refuse your queen, then - Why, the little scamp! He's trapped me again.
Meade said, 'Souldn't let him beat you so often, Hazel. It's not good for him.'
'Meade, for the ninth time, quit turning your head!'
'Sorry, Mother. Let's take a rest.'
Grandmother snorted. 'You don't think I let him beat me on purpose, do you? You play him; I am giving up the game for good.'
Meade answered just as her mother spoke; at the same time Pollux chucked the boy back at Castor. 'You - take him. I want to eat.' The child squealed. Mr Stone shouted, 'QUIET!'
'And stay quiet,' he went on, while unfastening the throat mike. 'How is a man to make a living in all this racket? This episode has to be done over completely, sent to New York. tomorrow, shot, canned, distributed, and on the channels by the end of the week. It's not possible.'
'Then don't do it,' Dr Stone answered serenely. 'Or work in your room - it's soundproof.'
Mr Stone turned to his wife. 'My dear, I've explained a thousand times that I can't work in there by myself. I get no stimulation. I fall asleep.'
Castor said, 'How's it going, Dad? Rough?'
'Well, now that you ask me, the villains are way ahead and I don't see a chance for our heroes.'
'I thought of a gimmick while Pol and I were out. You have this young kid you introduced into the story slide into the control room while everybody is asleep. They don't suspect him, see? - he's too young so they haven't put him in irons. Once in the control room - ' Castor stopped and looked crestfallen. 'No, it won't do; he's too young to handle the ship. He wouldn't know how.'
'Why do you say that?' his father objected. 'All I have to do is to plant that he has had a chance to. . . let me see -' He stopped; his face went blank. 'No,' he said presently.
'No good, huh?'
'Eh? What? It smells - but I think I can use it. Stevenson did something like it in Treasure Island - and I think he got it from Homer. Let's see; if we - ' He again went into his trance.
Pollux had opened the warming cupboard Castor dropped his baby brother on the floor and accepted a dinner pack from his twin. He opened it. 'Meat pie again,' he stated bleakly and sniffed it. 'Synthetic, too.'
'Say that over again and louder,' his sister urged him. 'I've been trying for weeks to get Mother to subscribe to another restaurant.'
'Don't talk, Meade,' Dr Stone answered. 'I'm modelling your mouth.'
Grandmother Stone snorted. 'You youngsters have it too easy. When I came to the Moon there was a time when we had nothing but soya beans and coffee powder for three months.'
Meade answered, 'Hazel, the last time you told us about that it was two months and it was tea instead of coffee.'
'Young lady, who's telling this lie? You, or me?' Hazel stood up and came over to her twin grandsons. 'What were you two doing on Dan Ekizian's lot?'
Castor looked at Pollux, who looked back. Castor said cautiously, 'Who told you that we were there?'
'Don't try to kid your grandmother. When you have been on -'
The entire family joined her in chorus: '"- on the Moon as long as I have!"'
Hazel sniffed. 'Sometimes I wonder why I married!' Her son said, 'Don't try to answer that question,' then continued to his sons, 'Well, what were you doing there?' Castor consulted Pollux by eye, then answered, 'Well, Dad, it's like this -'
His father nodded. 'Your best flights of imagination always start that way. Attend carefully, everybody.'
'Well, you know that money you are holding for us?'
'What about it?' 'Three per cent isn't very much.' Mr Stone shook his head vigorously. 'I will not invest your royalties in some wildcat stock. Financial genius may have skipped my generation but when I turn that money over to you, it will be intact'
'That's just it. It worries you. You could turn it over to us now and quit worrying about it.'
'No. You are too young.'
'We weren't too young to earn it'