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

He looked at her and grinned. 'Stand by to raise ship!'
She answered, 'Board green! Clear from tower! Ready for count off!'
'Minus thirty! Twenty-nine - twenty-eight - ' He broke off and added sheepishly, 'It does feel good.'
'You're dern tootin' it does. Let's grab ourselves a chunk of it before we're too old. This city life is getting us covered with moss.'
Roger Stone swung his long legs out of the pilot's couch. 'Um, maybe we should. Yes, we really should.'
Hazel's booted feet hit the deck plates by his. 'That's my boy! I'll raise you up to man size yet. Let's go see what the twins have taken apart.'
The twins were still in the power room. Roger went down first; he said to Castor, 'Well, son, how does it look? Will she raise high enough to crash?'
Castor wrinkled his forehead. 'We haven't found anything wrong, exactly, but they've taken her boost units out. The pile is just a shell.'
Hazel said, 'What do you expect? For 'em to leave "hot" stuff sitting in a decommissioned ship? In time the whole stern would be radioactive, even if somebody didn't steal it.
Her son answered, 'Quit showing off, Hazel, Cas knows that. We'll check the log data and get a metallurgical report later - if we ever talk business.'
Hazel answered, 'King's knight to queen bishop five. What's the matter, Roger? Cold feet?'
'No, I like this ship. . . but I don't know that I can pay for her. And even if she were a gift, it will cost a fortune to overhaul her and get her ready for space.'
'Pooh! I'll run the overhaul myself, with Cas and Pol to do the dirty work. Won't cost you anything but dockage. As for the price, we'll burn that bridge when we come to it.'
'I'll supervise the overhaul, myself.'
'Want to fight? Let's go down and find out just what inflated notions Dan Ekizian has this time. And remember - let me do the talking.'
'Now wait a minute - I never said I was going to buy this bucket.'
'Who said you were? But it doesn't cost anything to dicker. I can make Dan see reason.'
Dealer Dan Ekizian was glad to see them, doubly so when he found that they were interested, not in the Detroiter VII, but in a larger, more expensive ship. At Hazel's insistence she and Ekizian went into his inner office alone to discuss prices. Mr Stone let her get away with it, knowing that his mother drove a merciless bargain. The twins and he waited outside for quite a while; presently Mr Ekizian called his office girl in.
She came out a few minutes later, to be followed shortly by Ekizian and Hazel. 'It's all settled', she announced, looking smug.
The dealer smiled grudgingly around his cigar. 'Your mother is a very smart woman, Mister Mayor.'
'Take it easy!' Roger Stone protested. 'You are both mixed up in your timing. I'm no longer mayor, thank heaven - and nothing is settled yet. What are the terms?'
Ekizian glanced at Hazel, who pursed her lips. 'Well, now, son', she said slowly, 'it's like this. I'm too old a woman to fiddle around. I might die in bed, waiting for you to consider all sides of the question. So I bought it'
'You?'
'For all practical purposes. It's a syndicate. Dan puts up the ship; I wangle the cargo - and the boys and I take the stuff out to the Asteroids for a fat profit. I've always wanted to be a skipper.'
Castor and Pollux had been lounging in the background, listening and watching faces. At Hazel's announcement Pollux started to speak; Castor caught his eye and shook his head. Mr Stone said explosively, 'That's preposterous! I won't let you do it'
'I'm of age, son.' -
'Mr Ekizian, you must be out of your mind.'
The dealer took his cigar and stared at the end of it. 'Business is business.'
'Well...at least you won't get my boys mixed up in it That's out!'
'Mmm. . . ' said Hazel. 'Maybe. Maybe not. Let's ask them.'
'They're not of age.'
'No. . . not quite. But suppose they went into court and asked that I be appointed their guardian?'
Mr Stone listened to this quietly, then turned to his sons.'Cas. . . Pol . . . did you frame this with your grandmother?'
Pollux answered, 'No, sir.'
'Would you do what she suggests?'
Castor answered, 'Now, Dad, you know we wouldn't like to do anything like that.'
'But would you do it, eh?'
'I didn't say so, sir.'
'Hmm - ' Mr Stone turned back. 'This is pure blackmail - and I won't stand for it. Mr Ekizian, you knew that I came in here to bid on that ship. You knew that my mother was to bargain for it as my agent. You both knew that - but you made a deal behind my back. Now either you set that so-called deal aside and we start over - or I haul both of you down to the Better Business Bureau.
Hazel was expressionless; Mr. Ekizan examined his rings.
'There's something in what you say, Mr Stone. Suppose we go inside and talk it over?'
'I think we had better.'
Hazel followed them in and plucked at her son's sleeve before he had a chance to start anydung. 'Roger? You really want to buy this ship?'
'I do.'
She pointed to papers spread on Ekizian's desk. 'Then just sign right there and stamp your thumb.'
He picked up the papers instead. They contained no suggestion of the deal Hazel had outlined; instead they conveyed to him all right, title and interest in the vessel he had just inspected, and at a price much lower than he had been prepared to pay. He did some hasty mental arithmetic and concluded that Hazel had not only gotten the ship at scrapmetal prices but also must have bulldozed Ekizian into discounting the price by what it would have cost him to cut the ship up into pieces for salvage.
- In dead silence he reached for Mr Ekizian's desk stylus, signed his name, then carefully affixed his thumb print. He looked up and caught his mother's eye. 'Hazel, there is no honesty in you and you'll come to a bad end.'
She smiled. 'Roger, you do say the sweetest things.'
Mr Ekizian sighed. 'As I said, Mr Stone, your mother is a very smart woman. I offered her a partnership.'
'Then there was a deal?'