"E. E. Doc Smith - D'Alembert 10 - Revolt of the Galaxy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

alert.
He pulled his wagon up to the roadblock and stopped obediently at the officer's order. "What's
your name?" the policeman asked brusquely.
"Gari Nav, if it please you, sir."
"What's your business in Garridan?"
"I just want to visit and see the sights. Been living out in the hills all my life and decided it
was time to see something of the world."
This answer did not sit well with the officer. Anything that did not fit within the narrow
confines of his experience was a potential trouble spot. "Let me see your card."
"What card?"
"Your citizen's card."
"I don't have any card."
"Everybody has a card."
"Not me," Pias said with naive simplicity.
"Citizen's cards were issued to everyone on Newforest over the age of ten."
"Then they must've missed me, because I never got one."
The officer fumed and spoke a few words into his wrist com. After a moment instructions came back
and he spoke again to Pias. "You're to leave your wagon here and come with me," he insisted. Pias
obeyed with outward cheerfulness, though his innards were tensed for battle at any moment.
Pias was searched thoroughly, but had fortunately taken the precaution of burying his weapons a
short distance outside town. It left him feeling somehow naked and helpless, but considering the
police-state mentality that now prevailed on Newforest, it was better than being caught with
unregistered weapons. Guns would be useless in this initial police confrontation. If he survived
this, weapons could be obtained easily enough in the city if one knew where to look for them.
Having determined that Pias was unarmed, the policeman put him in a car and drove him down to the
central police headquarters - a building that had been substantially improved since Pias's last
visit to Newforest. With little reported crime on Newforest, the police had always been a
formality that no one, least of all themselves, took very seriously. All that had changed, and
Pias found himself in the middle of a busy, efficient office where people in their spotless
uniforms moved briskly about their urgent tasks. The faces were humorless, the atmosphere heavy
and solemn.
Pias was taken into a stark office and seated in front of a desk, where a higher-ranking officer
questioned him for over an hour about his background. Pias stuck to the story he'd invented for
himself - that he lived on a small farm up in the hills and had few dealings with civilization. He
hunted or grew most of his own food, trading with neighbors for the few other things he needed. No
one had ever come to his farm to give him a citizen's card and he'd never heard about them until
today. His tone was unfailingly polite and helpful with out giving the police anything they could
use against him.


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The police were especially suspicious because the unknown intruder was still at large, but Pias
was so obviously a native of Newforest that he managed to allay most of their doubts. In the end,
they decided to issue him a citizen's card and consider the matter closed. Pias was fingerprinted
and had his retinal patterns recorded; all that and more information about him was encoded on the
small blue plastic card they gave him. He was told to keep the card with him at all times and then
driven back to the roadblock, where he picked up his wagon and was allowed to enter Garridan
officially.