"Larry Niven - Crashlander (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

"My name is Sigmund Ausfaller," said the government man. "I wish to say a few words concerning
your assignment on behalf of General Products."

I nodded, not saying anything.

"A record of your verbal contract was sent to us as a matter of course. I noticed some peculiar
things about it. Mr. Shaeffer, will you really take such a risk for only five hundred thousand
stars?"

"I'm getting twice that."

"But you only keep half of it. The rest goes to pay debts. Then there are taxes ... But never
mind. What occurred to me was that a spaceship is a spaceship, and yours is very well armed and
has powerful legs. An admirable fighting ship, if you were moved to sell it."

"But it isn't mine."

"There are those who would not ask. On Canyon, for example, or the Isolationist party of
Wunderland."

I said nothing.

"Or you might be planning a career of piracy. A risky business, piracy, and I don't take the
notion seriously."

I hadn't even thought about piracy. But I'd have to give up on Wunderland.

"What I would like to say is this, Mr. Shaeffer. A single entrepreneur, if he were sufficiently
dishonest, could do terrible damage to the reputation of all human beings everywhere. Most species
find it necessary to police the ethics of their own members, and we are no exception. It occurred
to me that you might not take your ship to the neutron star at all, that you would take it
elsewhere and sell it. The puppeteers do not make invulnerable war vessels. They are pacifists.
Your Skydiver is unique.

"Hence, I have asked General Products to allow me to install a remote-control bomb in the
Skydiver. Since it is inside the hull, the hull cannot protect you. I had it installed this
afternoon.

"Now, notice! If you have not reported within a week, I will set off the bomb. There are several


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worlds within a week's hyperspace flight of here, but all recognize the dominion of Earth. If you
flee, you must leave your ship within a week, so I hardly think you will land on a nonhabitable
world. Clear?"

"Clear."