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

how they work out. If they don't, very well, Commissioner, then you've
made your point. Meanwhile, of course, we are also recruiting in the old
manner."

The Section G head hesitated.

"How can you lose?" Sid Jakes said humorously. "Put up or shut up,
Chief."

Metaxa cast his eyes upward, in search of divine guidance.
"Surrounded by stutes," he muttered. Then, to Lee Chang, "You're on.
Anything to bring you to your senses." He thought about it. "There's a
situation brewing on Firenze. The type of job any troupe of competent
Section G operatives should be able to handle. Very well, round up four of
these miracles of yours and send them to my office."

He turned and marched off, still muttering.

Sid Jakes grinned down at Lee Chang Chu. "Okay, he's tossed you the
whistle; let's see how you blow it."

She bit her lower lip thoughtfully, and looked around the hall at her
proteges.

They were seated before his desk in a row. Ross Metaxa couldn't keep
his eyes from the seeming eight-year-old girl in her pretty little pink party
dress and with the pink hair ribbon in her pretty blonde hair which came
down to her shoulders in a style of yesteryear.

He rapped, "Are you sure you're twenty-five years old?"

Helen, who had a red ball in her right hand, jumped to the floor, and,
bouncing the toy, skipped around the desk singing in a childish treble,
"Three little girls in blue, tra la, three little girls in blue." It couldn't have
been more charming.

The Commissioner of Section G was in no humor to be charmed. When
she sidled up to him to whisper in his ear, he began to growl at her.

She whispered, a lisp in her voice, "You should never ask a lady her age,
but it's twenty-six, not twenty-five." Even as she whispered, her tiny child
hands twisted the red ball which fell away into halves revealing a hollow
center. Quickly deft, she scooped the small hypo-gun from its concealment
and ground it into his side.

"Three little girls in blue, tra la," she sneered nastily.

The other three present were laughing.

Dr. Dorn Horsten said, "Thank the Holy Ultimate that she's on our