"Alexander Kazantsev. The Destruction of Faena (ГИБЕЛЬ ФАЭНЫ, англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

the addition The Second Junior. The Ruler was thinking of his son on the
barbarians' continent, where an explosion could occur at any time...
In spite of himself, there arose in his mind's eye, in all its details,
that accursed day half a cycle ago, when he had decided on an act for which
he could now find neither justification nor forgiveness.
The robot secretary reported that Kutsi Merc was in the waiting-room.
Since the time when Dobr Mar's predecessor had been shot in that very office
by his own secretary, the Grand Circle had decreed that only robot
secretaries should work in the Ruler's Palace. And now the "intelligent box"
had shown Kutsi Merc on the screen. While waiting to be received, Kutsi had
not noticed that he was being watched, but he was naturally alert. A typical
roundhead, he had a face like the disc of Lua, Faena's eternal satellite.
His narrow eyes were looking sideways at the door.
Relations were complex between Dobr Mar and Kutsi Merc. Only Kutsi knew
how the Ruler had come to power. Dobr Mar had formerly been a "friend of the
Ruler", and by law had to occupy the "first chair" in the event of his
death.
No one abused the "mentally unstable" assassin more than Dobr Mar. He
swore to pursue the same foreign policy as the late Ruler: the eternal
hostility with Powermania was to be tempered and everything possible should
be done to reconcile the planet's two continents and deliver the Faetians
from the horrors of war.
Not long before the assassination of Dobr Mar's predecessor, Kutsi Merc
had handed him the terrible conditions on which he could become Ruler: he
must be the first to start a disintegration war.
Once he had taken his predecessor's place, Dobr Mar was in no hurry to
pursue the lunatic policy of the "mortally unstable" who demanded that the
war be won with disintegration weapons.
Dobr Mar ruled Danjab, finding work and living accommodation for the
ominously growing population. He tried to reduce the tension in relations
between the continents, put through a law making old goods subject to
destruction so that new ones would be acquired and managed things so that
Yar Jupi, satisfied by the cut in the import of overseas goods, was even
forced to agree to joint actions in space.
...Dobr Mar had guessed why Kutsi Merc had come and what he was going
to say. After all, the Ruler had not yet met the "special conditions". And
on the eve of the elections, Dobr Mar was afraid of possible denunciations.
What if he struck the first blow?
When he went into the office, Kutsi Merc halted. Squat, but well-built
and broad-shouldered, almost without a neck, he looked like a wrestler
before a match.
The match took place. Dobr Mar went trustingly towards him.
"The councillors of the Grand Circle are troubled by the information
obtained by Kutsi Merc to the effect that the barbarians have mastered and
even improved on the automatic machines they originally obtained from us, so
that they have become dangerous."
"The Ruler is right. The automatic machines are dangerous. I have a
reliable agent in the Lair."
"What guarantee is there that the automatic machines won't function by
accident?"