"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 12 - Eloise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

chain."

The figures were numbing. Nequal considered them as he
studied the depiction. Allowing for the possibility that only half
the possible sequences needed to be investigated before success
was achieved, it would still take close to sixty million years. For
one team, of course; more workers would reduce the figure, but
still the amount was staggering.

He felt again the impatience which gripped him each time he
recalled the stupidity of the guards at Riano; the willful neglect
of the cybers in charge of the laboratory concerned. They had
paid for their inefficiency but the damage remained. The secret
of the sequence chain had been lost.

Lost, but not destroyed; of that he was certain. And what had
been lost could be found again.

He said, "With the decay affecting the older brains of Central
Intelligence, the matter must be moved to a higher order of
priority. I have advocated this before, but my predecessor did
not agree." One of the factors which had led to his replacement,
but Nequal did not mention that. "The secret must be regained."
 Wain made a small, helpless gesture.

"Agreed, Master, but as yet all efforts towards that end have
failed. We know that the secret was stolen by Brasque, who took
it to the woman Kalin. We know too that she passed it on before
she died."

"To the man Dumarest," said Yandron. "Earl Dumarest. How
could one man have eluded us for so long?"

For answer Nequal gestured towards the depiction, the host of
glowing worlds.

"One man," he said. "Moving as a molecule would move in a
heated gas. One man among billions, moving from world to
world, and he has been warned. At first, when unaware he held
the secret he could have been taken, had due importance been
given to the matter. Now, warned, he is on his guard."

And dead cybers proved it. Cybers and agents both; those who
had come close, those who had been careless. They had paid the
price for underestimating the man they sought.

"The secret was used on Dradea," said Yandron evenly. "We
have proof of that. It seemed that we had him fast and then he
vanished."