"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 3 - The Clockwork Traitor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

THE CLOCKWORK TRAITOR

Volume Three of The classic Family d'Alembert series

By E.E. тАШDoc' Smith
With Stephen Goldin


Prologue

Rawl Winsted's head felt bruised. It was not a physical feeling but a mental
one, a
fuzziness in his mind as though his entire brain were wrapped in cotton wool.
And there
was one particular portion of his memory that he simply could not touch. Every
time he
would send an exploratory thought in that direction it would dissipate into
nothingness,
leaving him with a feeling of mild confusion.

He knew precisely what was causing that sensation: a hypnotic block. It had
been
placed there to prevent him from knowing exactly why he had come to the planet
Kolokov, whom he had worked for, and what he had done. He resented it a
little-after
all, what man liked having a portion of his life permanently taken away from
him? To
never know what he had done or said for a period of about a week was a
slightly chilling
concept.

But his resentment was slight. He bad accepted the necessity for the hypnotic
block as
one of the conditions of his employment on the just-completed job. And
besides, his
employer-whoever it had been-had given him a substantial bonus for agreeing to
the
treatment. The thought of the extra ten thousand rubles tucked neatly away in
his bank
account was a very consoling one.

Even so, his thoughts could not help but be attracted to that blank spot in
his mind, just
like a tongue playing over the vacancy left by a recently extracted tooth.

He brought his mind back to the business at hand. Since he was here on Kolokov
anyway, he could not resist the temptation to make a little extra money, and
the piece
of jewelry on the worktable before him represented a sizeable investment that
could pay