"Dean Ing - Soft Targets" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ing Dean)

For my parents

All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is
purely coincidental.
A portion of this novel was published as "Very Proper Charlies" in the October 1978 issue of
Destinies, copyright ┬й 1978 by Charter Communications, Inc.

SOFT TARGETS
An Ace Science Fiction Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Ace original / October 1979
Ace Science Fiction edition / May 1980
Second printing / July 1986
All rights reserved.
Copyright ┬й 1979 by Dean Ing.
Cover art by Peter Atterd.
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, witho
permission.
For information address:
The Berkley Publishing Group,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016.
ISBN: 0-441-77407-5

Ace Science Fiction Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

". . . I found fear a mean, overrated motive; no deterrent and, though a stimulant, a poison
stimulant whose every injection served to con-sume more of the system ..."
тАФT. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

FRIDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER, 1980:

Still naked and sleep-fogged after his morning coffee, the wire-muscled little man retrieved
attach├й case from his pillowslip and placed it with reverence on the apartment's sleazy table
touched the case in a necessary spot, then traded regal glances with Elizabeth II of England, wh
likeness faced him from predom-inantly brown engravings. As an eye-opener, he reflected, caff
was no match for cash.
The twenty-five thousand was in hundreds, all Canadian money. There would be more soon, i
sources were sufficiently pleased with his Buffalo broadcast of the previous night. Next to
money was his Hewlett-Packard hand cal-culator; American, modified in France. His Ger
passport, tucked into a flap, had been faked in Italy. The Spanish automatic with its armpit ho
took up most of the remaining space; he had obtained the piece in Quebec while ki
timeтАФamong other things. He flicked his great dark eyes to the note pad flank-ing his passp
deciphering his personal shorthand which was by Arabic out of Gregg. Altogether, he tho
contentedly, a cosmo-politan survival kit.
 He grasped the little HP calculator and queried it. 9:37 A FRI, the alphanumeric display read
could easily have programmed it to add, 19 SEP 80 TORONTO; or perhaps 6 DAYS
BORDER. Even among HP units, it was a very special gadget. He winkedтАФa signal Ameri
usually misread as harmless duplicityтАФat the stacks of Elizabeths, closed the case, and sto