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

Beti ducked into another alleyway, hoping to escape through it onto some other street or at least
find someplace to hide. She ran down the darkened alley. Each breath was a fresh stabbing pain in
her lungs.
Too late she realized she'd come to a dead end. She found herself facing a brick wall, with no way
to climb over it. She looked from side to side for an open doorway, but there was none. It was too
late to go back the way she'd come. She was trapped. Even as her spirits were sinking, she turned
back to face her pursuers, knife at the ready. If her life was to end in some dead-end alley on a
planet far from home, at least she would end it with a fight.
The two men chasing her had slowed their pace, realizing they had her trapped. The man with the
blaster was still reluctant to use it, but they approached slowly out of respect for her talents
with the knife. Beti stood in a fighting crouch, waiting for them to come within range so she
could at least kill one before the other over powered her.


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Suddenly bright lights appeared at the front of the alley and a loudspeaker blared, "This is the
police. Drop your weapons immediately and put your hands in the air."
The two men whirled around at this unexpected development, and the one with the blaster pointed it
at the lights. He never had the chance to fire as the buzz of a stunner charged the air and he
collapsed in a heap on the ground. His partner, realizing they'd lost, surrendered to the
inevitable and put up his hands.
Beti flushed with sudden relief and she staggered, then leaned against the wall for support. She
let the knife drop to the ground. She wouldn't need it. Her ordeal was over for the moment - and
maybe now she could convince the police to help her look for her brother.

CHAPTER 2
A Family Reunion
Felicit├й, the mansion of DesPlaines' Duke Etienne d'Alembert, was a sprawling one-story complex
surrounded by sturdy stone walls. The maze of hallways connecting the thirty major rooms and the
hundred and ten bedrooms had been known to confuse even the sharpest minds - so much so that small
computer terminals were located at intervals to calculate and pin point the shortest route from
wherever one was at the moment to wherever one wanted to go.
This enormous edifice was usually barely occupied, as Duke Etienne and the majority of the
d'Alembert clan toured the Empire in the Circus of the Galaxy for no less than ten months Out of
the year. In those months the estate was inhabited by Duke Etienne's eldest son Robert, Marquis of
DesPlaines, Robert's wife Gabrielle, their three children, and the host of servants and
administrators it took to run both the household and the planet. Only when the Circus was on
vacation was Felicit├й crowded to capacity, and then even the barracks behind the main mansion
would be filled with d'Alemberts practicing new tricks and upgrading their acts.
The Circus was currently on tour, but nonetheless there were a few extra residents at Felicit├й.
Yvonne d'Alembert and Pias Bavol were between assignments for the Service of the Empire and had
nothing more crucial to do than tend their children, Maurice d'Alembert and Kari Bavol.
The d'Alembert family tradition was a rigorous one, and already the children were being taught the
skills they'd use in later life. At one year of age, Maurice was learning the art of tumbling and
how to fall properly - important lessons for anyone from a three-gee world, and particularly
important for someone who would probably end up in the Galaxy's foremost circus troupe. Yvonne
also took her son for swings on a trapeze to help him overcome the fear of heights instinctive to
every high-grav native. Yvonne d'Alembert had married into the circus clan and was not a performer