"Murray Leinster - The Pirates of Zan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

than twenty thousand people, and few approach that size. Most settled places are mere villages near some feudal
castle, and roads are so few and bad that wheeled transport is rare."
He leaned back and said in a detached voice:
"I had a letter from there a couple of months ago. It was rather arrogant. The writer was one Don Loris, and he
explained that his dignity would not let him make a com-mercial offer, but an electronic engineer who put himself under
his protection would not be the loser. Are you in-terested? No kings on Darth, just feudal chiefs."
Hoddan thought it over.
"I'll go to Darth," he decided. "It's bound to be better than Zan, and it can't be worse than Walden."
The ambassador looked impassive. An embassy servant came in and offered an indoor communicator. The
ambassador put it to his ear. After a moment he said:
"Show him in." He turned to Hoddan. "You did kick up a storm! The Minister of State, no less, is here to demand
your surrender. I'll counter with a formal request for an exit permit. I'll talk to you again when he leaves."
Hoddan went out. He paced up and down the other room into which he was shown. Darth wouldn't be in a golden
 age! He was wiser now than he'd been just this morning. He recognized that he'd made mistakes. Now he could see
rather ruefully how completely improbable it was that any-body could put across a technical device merely by proving
its value, without first making anybody want it. He shook his head regretfully at the blunder.
The ambassador sent for him.
"I've had a pleasant time," he told Hoddan genially. "There was a beautiful row. You've really scared people,
Hoddan. You deserve well of the republic. Every government and every person needs to be thoroughly terrified
occasionally. It limbers up the brain."
"Yes, sir," said Hoddan. "I'veтАФ"
"The planetary government," said the ambassador with relish, "insists that you have to be locked up with the key
thrown away. It seems you know how to make death rays.
I said it was nonsense, and you were a political refugee in sanctuary. The Minister of State said the Cabinet would
consider removing you forcibly from the embassy if you weren't surrendered. I said that if the embassy were violated,
no ship would, clear for Walden from any other civilized planet. They wouldn't like losing their off-planet trade! Then
he said that the government would not give you an exit permit, and that he would hold me personally responsible if
you killed everybody on Walden, including himself and me. I said he insulted me by suggesting that I'd permit such
shenanigans. He said the government would take an ex-tremely grave view of my attitude, and I said they would be
silly if they did. Then he went off with great dignityтАФbut shaking with panicтАФ1& think up more nonsense."
"Evidently," said Hoddan in relief, "you believe me when I say that my gadget doesn't make death rays."
The ambassador looked slightly embarrassed.
"To be honest," he admitted, "I've no doubt that you
invented it independently,' but they've been using such a
device for half a century in the Cetis cluster. They've had
no trouble." ,
Hoddan winced.
"Did you tell the minister that?"
"Hardly," said the ambassador. "It would have done you no good. You're in open revolt and have performed overt
acts of violence against the police. It was impolite enough for me to suggest that the local government was stupid. It
would have been most undiplomatic to prove it."
Hoddan did not feel very proud, just then.
"I'm thinking that the copsтАФquite unofficiallyтАФmight try to kidnap me from the embassy. They'll deny that they
tried, especially if they manage it. But I think they'll try."
"Very likely," said the ambassador. "We'll take precau-tions."
"I'd like to make somethingтАФnot lethalтАФjust in case," said Hoddan. "If you can trust me not to make death rays, I'd
like to make a generator of odd-shaped microwaves. They're described in textbooks. They ionize the air where they
strike. That's all. They make air a high-resistance conductor.
Nothing more than that."
The ambassador said: