"Mack Reynolds - Code Duello" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

"You can evidently come mighty close. How is he?"

"Still unconscious."

Metaxa made a face. He looked back at Lee Chang, who was demurely
maintaining her peace. "What's this about sending an eight-year-old girl
to Falange?"

Sid Jakes laughed. "Chief, you misread that report. Helen just looks like
an eight-year-old. She's in her mid-twenties."

"How can anybody who looks like an eight-year-old child be a Section G
operative? What's this other supposed agent? A Cordon Bleu chef. If this
Tri-Di photo with his dossier means anything at all, he looks like a
roly-poly middle-aged man. And thisтАж"

Lee Chang said mildly, "The point is, Commissioner, they cleaned up
the Falange mess. A mess that had cost us three men, experienced agents,
before they took over."

Metaxa looked at her blankly, looked back at the report. He poured
himself another of the fiery Denebian tequilas and tossed it back. "How
could they possibly have?"

Lee Chang came gracefully to her feet. "I suggest we go to the gym. At
this time of the day, most of the class is exercisingтАж or practicing their
special talents."

Ross Metaxa glared at her again, then growled into his orderbox,
"Irene, can I be spared for fifteen minutes?"

Sid Jakes and Lee Chang failed to make out the reply, but Metaxa
turned the glare from the Chinese girl to the box. "Oh, is that so?" he
snapped. "Well, you're fired." He came to his feet and lumbered around
the desk, heading for the door. "I don't know why I put up with that
woman."

Sid Jakes came to his own feet, to follow. He chuckled. "You put up
with her, Chief, because she knows more about the workings of Section G
than the three of us, here, put together."

Metaxa snorted.

The Commissioner of Section G stared about him in disbelief. The hall
was a madhouse.

Up near the ceiling, a small child was doing things on a trapeze that
should have been impossible. Over near one wall, a stocky, not to say
plump, man was winging a shovel around and around his head. Suddenly,