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

DesPlaines. Good luck in finding your brother."
---
Because there were so few tourists, there were no hotels near the spaceport; Beti Bavol had to
take a cab into the center of Nouveau Calais to find one. The price was reasonable, and she
quickly settled into her comfortable but compact room. She unpacked her one small suitcase and
then faced the challenge of what to do next.
It was imperative that she find her brother Pias as quickly as possible - but where could she
begin? She didn't have enough money with her to hire a detective, and she'd never done any tracing
on her own, so she hadn't the faintest idea how to go about it. She had very few facts to go on.
Her brother had been exiled from Newforest four years ago in disgrace and she wasn't even sure
he'd come to DesPlaines. All she knew was that he'd become engaged to a DesPlainian woman named
Yvette Dupres. They could just as easily have married and settled on some other planet - or
perhaps they'd broken their engagement and each gone their separate ways. It was a very slender
thread that brought Beti Bavol to DesPlaines - and if it broke, she wasn't sure where she'd go
from here.
She tried calling the police first, but they were less than helpful. Unless her brother was
officially listed as a missing person or was wanted in connection with some crime, they couldn't
spare the manpower to help her. Since Pias's case didn't fall within the "missing persons"
category, the police refused even to listen to her.
She next tried calling the SOTE office, figuring that they would have records of everyone who came
to DesPlaines. The clerk she spoke to told her that they might indeed have such records, but they
were all confidential; regulations regarding personal privacy for bade SOTE to release such
information to the public without a court order. Beti Bavol had hit another stone wall.
She checked the public vidicom directory; if Pias had a vidicom set, he'd more than likely be
listed. But there was no listing for anyone with the name Bavol. There were plenty of Dupres',
including seven Yvettes; in desperation Beti called them all. Three of them weren't in; the rest
were obviously not the woman she'd met as Pias's fianc├йe.
Wracking her brain, Beti tried asking information from the Bureau of Public Records. If Pias and
his Yvette had gotten married, there should be a certificate on file somewhere. A very kindly lady
checked the entire file for her, but could find no marriage certificate issued to Pias Bavol. If


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Beti's brother had gotten married, the ceremony had taken place somewhere other than DesPlaines.
By the time she'd received this negative information it was suppertime and most government offices
had closed for the day; there would be nothing Beti could do until they opened again tomorrow.
Feeling miserable and de pressed, she went to dinner at the small restaurant adjacent to the
hotel. There, as she picked apathetically at her food, she tried to think of some other strategy
for finding Pias.
Perhaps she could check with the transportation department and find out whether Pias had ever
applied for a license to drive or fly a vehicle on DesPlaines. Perhaps she could check to see
whether any business licenses had been granted in his name. And - though the thought horrified her
- she supposed she should check the newsroll obituaries over the last few years to see whether he
might have died here.
She considered taking out a personal ad in the local newsrolls, but discarded that thought as
impractical. She couldn't even be certain he was on this planet - and even if he was, the odds
were greatly against his seeing the ad. Her funds were running very low after paying for passage
on the Anatolia; she dared not waste her money on anything that offered such small chance of