"H. Beam Piper - The Cosmic Computer (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

a lot of freight lately. I guess I don't have to tell you about
Litchfield."

"Maybe you do. I've been away for six years. Tell me, are they
having labor trouble now?"

"Labor trouble?" the mate was surprised. "You mean with the
farm-tramps? Ten of them for every job, if you call that
trouble."

"Well, I noticed you have steel gratings over the gangway heads
to the lower deck, and all your crewmen are armed. Not just
pistols, either."

"Oh. That's on account of pirates."



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"Pirates?" Conn echoed.

"Well, I guess you'd call them that. A gang'll come aboard,
dressed like farm-tramps; they'll have tommy guns and sawed-off
shotguns in their bindles. When the ship's airborne and out of
reach of help, they'll break

2

out their guns and take her. Usually kill all the crew and
passengers. They don't like to leave live witnesses," the mate
said. "You heard about the Harriet Barne, didn't you?"

She was Transcontinent & Overseas, the biggest contragravity
ship on the planet.

"They didn't pirate her, did they?"

The mate nodded. "Six months ago; Blackie Perales' gang. There
was just a tag end of a radio call, that ended in a shot. Time
the Air Patrol got to her estimated position it was too late.
Nobody's ever seen ship, officers, crew or passengers since."

"Well, great Ghu; isn't the Government doing anything about it?"

"Sure. They offered a big reward for the pirates, dead or alive.
And there hasn't been a single case of piracy inside the city
limits of Storisende," he added solemnly.