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

he let go and the shovel spun over and over, finally to smash, blade first,
into the bull's-eye of what Metaxa could now see was a target, some thirty
feet away. Near another wall, a dark complected, serious looking worthy
was snapping a bullwhip of the type that could sometimes be seen in Old
West historical fiction Tri-Di shows.

Lee Chang, who was leading the way, came up to a dignified man whose
huge size was mollified by the anachronistic pince-nez glasses he wore,
and his air of the scholarly. He was watching the child trapeze artist. At
his feet was the largest dumbbell the Commissioner had ever seen.
 "Special talents?" Ross Metaxa blurted, in disgust. His eyes went
around the room. "These are the agents you've been recruiting for my
department?"

Sid Jakes chuckled.

"Shut up, you laughing hyena," Metaxa snapped. "With this
Dawnworlds crisis on our hands, we're shorter of trained agents than
Section G has ever been, and you come up with this gang of freaks." He
glanced at a plain-looking middle-aged woman who looked back at him
mildly.

Lee Chang said, "Martha Lorans. She has total recall. With Martha
along, a troupe assigned to some emergency can set down on a planet
without any records whatsoever on their persons. No matter what data
they need for the job, they can carry it in her head."

She indicated the large scholar. "That is Dr. Dorn M. Horsten,
top-notch research algae specialist. He has a hobby that is a personal
entertainment. Since boyhood he's amused himself with weight lifting and
pretzel-tying тАФusing one-inch mild steel bars for pretzels. He is actually
one of the strongest human beings in United Planets. His home world
helps: it's a one point four G planet A very nice, soft-spoken gentleman,
conspicuous at every unicellular biology meeting for his brilliant mind.
Naturally, nobody notices he has muscles, and can do things that any
other human being finds impossible."

Ross Metaxa grunted. He said, "What's that fellow doing?"-

"Zorro Juarez? He comes from Vacamundo, settled by Argentines. They
specialize in raising the best cattle and horses in the confederation, breed
them to order to meet the local conditions pertaining on the worlds that
desire such animals. The national sport is the use of the bullwhip. Have
you ever seen a twenty-foot bullwhip artist perform, Commissioner? Zorro
can make old William Tell look very amateurish. He could quarter the
apple on the boy's head and peel one half of it in the bargain."

Metaxa said, "Confound it, what good does a bull-whip artist do in this
day and age, and among Section G operatives?"