"Dean Ing & Mack Reynolds - Deathwish World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ing Dean)

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in
this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents
is purely coincidental.
Copyright ┬й 1986 by The Literary Estate of Mack Reynolds
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises 260 Fifth Avenue New York, N.Y. 10001
First printing, February 1986
ISBN: 0-671-65552-3
Cover art by Wayne Barlowe
Printed in the United States of America
Distributed by SIMON & SCHUSTER TRADE PUBLISHING GROUP
1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10020
Foreword
The greatest land acquisitions by any power in the history of the world
took place without even the faintest threat of arms. Not a shot was
fired by the conqueror in this unprecedented colonization program.
Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane were tyros, by
comparison, for none of them ruled a whole continent, much less two,
with scores of neighboring islands.
And it was possibly the softest sell of all time. The United States
Government simply issued a declaration that it welcomed any countries
in North, Central, or South America, or the Caribbean, to join it,
conferring all rights pertaining to American citizens, including the
Guaranteed Annual Stipend, or GASтАФsometimes called Negative
Income Tax. Our English friends called it "the dole." They had seen it
before. The English had seen everything beforeтАФincluding permanent
decline.
Though the United States of America became the United States of the
Americas without force, all was not simplicity. Military dictatorships,
particularly in the banana republics, did all in their power to remain
separate. Armies were ordered to fire upon mobs demanding admission
to the new United States. But the soldiers laughed. One had to reach
the rank of major to attain an income equal to that of a citizen of the
United States on GAS.
So, with little strain on the Yankees, the Western Hemisphere
assimilated into the United States of the Americas.
And, in the eyes of some, that was only the beginningтАж
Chapter One: Horace Hampton
A battered hovercar pulled up in the parking lot behind the aged
apartment building. There were few other vehicles there.
Three men got out and headed across the parking area for the back
door. The one in the middle carried a cane and affected a slight limp.
The other two carried tired-looking attach├й cases. All three were
dressed neatly, though their clothing was only a thin cut better than
prole level.
The one in the middle looked up at the paint-flaked wooden building
which was their destination. "You could sell it for an antique," he said.
One of the others grunted and told him, "You could sell all New Salem