"C M Kornbluth - The Luckiest Man In Denv" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

"That Server you caught," he said to Qscar. "What was he up to?"

His commander stared. "Are you trying to learn my job? Don't try it, I warn you. If my black marks
against you aren't enough, I could always arrange for some fissionable material in your custody to go
astray."

"No, no! I was just wondering why people do something like that."



Oscar sniffed doubtfully. "He's probably insane, like all the Ange-los. I've heard the climate does it to
them. You're not a Maintainer or a Controller. Why worry about it?"

"They'll brainburn him, I suppose?"

"I suppose. Listen!"

Deck One was firing. One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three,
four, five, six.

People turned to one another and shook hands, laughed and slapped shoulders heartily. Eighteen
missiles were racing through the stratosphere, soon to tumble on Ellay. With any luck, one or two would
slip through the first wall of interceptors and blast close enough to smash windows and topple walls hi the
crazy city by the ocean. It would serve the lunatics right.

Five minutes later an exultant voice filled most of Denv.
"Recon missile report," it said. "Eighteen launched, eighteen perfect trajectories. Fifteen shot down by
Ellay first-line interceptors, three shot down by Ellay second-line interceptors. Extensive blast damage
observed in Griffith Park area of Ellay!"

There were cheers.

And eight Full Maintainers marched into the refectory silently, and marched out with Reuben.

He knew better than to struggle or ask futile questions. Any question you asked of a Maintainer was
futile. But he goggled when they marched him onto an upward-bound stairway.

They rode past the eighty-ninth level and Reuben lost count, seeing only the marvels of the upper
reaches of Denv. He saw carpets that ran the entire length of corridors, and intricate fountains, and
mosaic walls, stained-glass windows, more wonders than he could recognize, things for which he had no
name.

He was marched at last into a wood-paneled room with a great polished desk and a map behind it. He
saw May, and another man who must have been a general-Rudolph?-but sitting at the desk was a frail
old man who wore a circlet of stars on each khaki shoulder.

The old man said to Reuben: "You are an Ellay spy and saboteur."

Reuben looked at May. Did one speak directly to the man who wore the stars, even hi reply to such an