"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 5 -Appointment at Bloodstar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

choking spasm to stop before she continued.

"Now, as I said, you will have twenty men available, though you may not need them all
on each assignment. If you have to hire more, that is your concern."

She took an envelope out of one drawer of the desk. "Here are the instructions for your
first target. You are to burn them immediately after reading them. There is to be no
trace left of any connection between us. That's all. You may go now."

"Yes, Your Ladyship." And Howard backed out the door bowing, a very changed man.

Lady A smiled. She actually welcomed the chance to have gotten a little hostility out of
her system. And sometimes a show of force was necessary to keep the hired help in
line.

The Empire's Primary Computer Complex was one of the most incredible feats of
engineering ever at= tempted by -man. But enormous problems require equally
enormous solutions. In order to govern a realm spread out over more than thirteen
hundred worlds, vast amounts of information were needed. The information had to be
instantly accessible, conveniently located and readily correlated. It would have to be
defended against possible attack from enemies seeking to cripple the Empire by


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depriving it of the very information it needed to survive. And above all, it had to be
accurate.

The Complex was built and put into operation a few years before the death of Emperor
Stanley IX. An asteroid twenty-five kilometers in diameter was moved out of its orbit
between Mars and Jupiter and put into orbit circling the Earth. The interior was hollowed
out by a series of carefully calculated nuclear explosions, then lined with lead to prevent
later contamination. Inside this immense hollow planetoid was constructed the largest,
most efficient computer ever conceived. Teams of experts had designed it to the
ultimate in technological sophistication; even now, nearly fifty years after its completion,
it was still said that no one man could ever fully understand its workings.

The exterior of the planetoid was bristling with weaponry, all under the control of the
computer itself. Should any hostile force attack it, the computer would fight back with
the most impressive array of armament humans had ever designed. And if fighting
proved impossible, the computer/planetoid was prepared to flee. Its own nuclear
engines and subspace drive gave it a superb capacity for flight. Access to the computer
facilities was strictly limited, and an applicant could only receive a pass after undergoing
a thorough security check, thus safeguarding against sabotage to the computer from
the inside. It was said that the Primary Computer Complex was the safest spot in the
Empire and that included the Imperial Palace.

It was now a week after Pias Bavol had undergone the final part of his thousand-point
test. Immediately thereafter, he and Yvette had left for Newforest for a well-deserved