"H. Beam Piper - Lone Star Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

"Mr. Silk! Mr. Ambassador! Here we are!" he was clamoring. "The car for the Embassy is right over
here!" He clutched my elbow. "You have no idea how glad we all are to see you, Mr. Ambassador!"

"Yes, yes; of course. Now, there's somebody over there I have to see, at once." I tried to pull myself
loose from his grasp.

Across the concrete between the two lighters, I could see the girl push out of the crowd around her and
wave a hand to me. I tried to yell to her; but just then another lighter, loaded with freight, started to lift
out at another nearby stand, with the roar of half a dozen Niagaras. The thin man in the striped trousers
added to the uproar by shouting into my ear and pulling at me.

"We haven't time!" he finally managed to make himself heard. "We're dreadfully late now, sir! You must
come with us."

Hoddy, too, had caught hold of me by the other arm.

"Come on, boss. There's gotta be some reason why he's got himself in an uproar about whatever it is.
You'll see her again."

Then, the whole gangтАФHoddy, the thin man with the black homburg, his younger accomplice in identical
garb, and the chauffeurтАФall closed in on me and pushed me, pulled me, half-carried me, fifty yards
across the concrete to where their air-car was parked. By this time, the tall blond had gotten clear of the
mob around her and was waving frantically at me. I tried to wave back, but I was literally crammed into
the car and flung down on the seat. At the same time, the chauffeur was jumping in, extending the car's
wings, jetting up.
"Great God!" I bellowed. "This is the damnedest piece of impudence I've ever had to suffer from any
subordinates in my whole State Department experience! I want an explanation out of you, and it'd better
be a good one!"

There was a deafening silence in the car for a moment. The thin man moved himself off my lap, then sat
there looking at me with the heartbroken eyes of a friendly dog that had just been kicked for something
which wasn't really its fault.

"Mr. Ambassador, you can't imagine how sorry we all are, but if we hadn't gotten you away from the
spaceport and to the Embassy at once, we would all have been much sorrier."

"Somebody here gunnin' for the Ambassador?" Hoddy demanded sharply.

"Oh, no! I hadn't even thought of that," the thin man almost gibbered. "But your presence at the Embassy
is of immediate and urgent necessity. You have no idea of the state into which things have gotten.... Oh,
pardon me, Mr. Ambassador. I am Gilbert W. Thrombley, your charg├й d'affaires." I shook hands with
him. "And Mr. Benito Gomez, the Secretary of the Embassy." I shook hands with him, too, and started
to introduce Mr. Hoddy Ringo.

Hoddy, however, had turned to look out the rear window; immediately, he gave a yelp.

"We got a tail, boss! Two of them! Look back there!"

There were two black eight-passenger aircars, of the same model, whizzing after us, making an obvious