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

"There's an item of great value involved, Ander. One I can't touch myself. That, and Feather, and
the way I look: they're all linked."

"Yes. Good," he said absently. "And, though he never said so to me, Sigmund may have wanted you
to know that if you outsmarted the ARM, you did not outsmart Sigmund."

"I expect he did. Anything else?"

"Oh, yes. I got into this because we were talking about Pierson's puppeteers. Sigmund and I
decided that you, Beowulf Shaeffer, know as much about these aliens as any ARM."

"Hah. Were you sober?"

"And then we worked out where you must be. No, not sober then, but we talked the next morning
and didn't change our minds. Beowulf, how did you first learn of the puppeteers?"

"School and the holo cube. We watched a lot of travelogues when we were kids. And we hung around
the spaceport, so I knew they make the General Products ships."

"And your first contact?"

"We wrote that up together. Oh, tanj, Ander! You're recording, aren't you?"

He said, "Yes," giving me an instant to object, daring me. Who was he recording for? Who was
involved in hunting Beowulf Shaeffer? If it was Sigmund Ausfaller ... I'd never outguessed Sigmund
yet.



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Ander said, "We'll pay you a consultant's fee. Ten per hour, Beowulf. Will you accept?"

"How many hours do you need?" It was generous, but my yes would be a verbal contract. I'd be his
prisoner.

He waved it off. "Until midnight. Then we can renegotiate. I need the recording for Sigmund."

Ouch. "Until midnight," I said, "present time being ten to noon local."

"Your first contact with Pierson's puppeteers?"

Fifteen years flying passengers between the worlds. Then Nakamura Lines collapsed, and I was on
the street ... on We Made It, because the bankruptcy courts allowed us transport home. Two years
later I was ready to accept an offer from anyone. Anyone ...