A Spaceship Named: 45 Sci-Fi Novels & Stories in One Volume. Randall Garrett

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ he looked up at Malone. "Ken," he said in a strained voice, "there seem to be a lot of nutty cases lately."

      Malone considered. "No," he said at last. "It's just that when a nutty one comes along, we get it."

      "That's what I mean," Boyd said. "I wonder why that is."

      Malone shrugged. "It takes a thief to catch a thief," he said.

      "But these aren't thieves," Boyd said. "I mean, they're just nutty." He paused. "Oh," he said.

      "And two thieves are better than one," Malone said.

      "Anyhow," Boyd said with a small, gusty sigh, "it's company."

      "Sure," Malone said.

      Boyd looked for an ashtray, failed again to find one, and walked over to flip a second cigarette out onto Washington. He came back to his chair, sat down, and said, "What's our next step, Ken?"

      Malone considered carefully. "First," he said finally, "we'll start assuming something. We'll start assuming that there is some kind of organization behind all this, behind all the senators' resignations and everything like that."

      "It sounds like a big assumption," Boyd said.

      Malone shook his head. "It isn't really," he said. "After all, we can't figure it's the work of one person: it's too widespread for that. And it's silly to assume that everything's accidental."

      "All right," Boyd said equably. "It's an organization."

      "Trying to subvert the United States," Malone went on. "Reducing everything to chaos. And that brings in everything else, Tom. That brings in the unions and the gang wars and everything."

      Boyd blinked. "How?" he said.

      "Obvious," Malone said. "Strife brought on by internal confusion, that's what's going on all over. It's the same pattern. And if we assume an organization trying to jam up the United States, it even makes sense." He leaned back and beamed.

      "Sure it makes sense," Boyd said. "But who's the organization?"

      Malone shrugged.

      "If I were doing the picking," Boyd said, "I'd pick the Russians. Or the Chinese. Or both. Probably both."

      "It's a possibility," Malone said. "Anyhow, if it's sabotage, who else would be interested in sabotaging the United States? There's some Russian or Chinese organization fouling up Congress, and the unions, and the gangs. Come to think of it, why the gangs? It seems to me that if you left the professional gangsters strong, it would do even more to foul things up."

      "Who knows?" Boyd said. "Maybe they're trying to get rid of American gangsters so they can import some of their own."

      "That doesn't make any sense," Malone said, "but I'll think about it. In the meantime, we have one more interesting question."

      "We do?" Boyd said.

      "Sure we do," Malone said. "The question is: how?"

      Boyd said: "Mmm." Then there was silence for a little while.

      "How are the saboteurs doing all this?" Malone said. "It just doesn't seem very probable that all the technicians in the Senate Office Building, for instance, are spies. It makes even less sense that the labor unions are composed mostly of spies. Or, for that matter, the Mafia and the organizations like it. What would spies be doing in the Mafia?"

      "Learning Italian," Boyd said instantly.

      "Don't be silly," Malone said. "If there were that many spies in this country, the Russians wouldn't have to fight at all. They could vote the Communists into power, and by a nice big landslide, too."

      "Wait a minute," Boyd said. "If there aren't so many spies, then how is all this getting done?"

      Malone beamed. "That's the question," he said. "And I think I have an answer."

      "You do?" Boyd said. After a second he said: "Oh, no."

      "Suppose you tell me," Malone said.

      Boyd opened his mouth. Nothing emerged. He shut it. A second passed and he opened it again. "Magic?" he said weakly.

      "Not exactly," Malone said cheerfully. "But you're getting warm."

      Boyd shut his eyes. "I'm not going to stand for it," he announced. "I'm not going to take any more."

      "Any more what?" Malone said. "Tell me what you have in mind."

      "I won't even consider it," Boyd said. "It haunts me. It gets into my dreams. Now, look, Ken, I can't even see a pitchfork any more without thinking of Greek letters."

      Malone took a breath. "Which Greek letter?" he said.

      "You know very well," Boyd said. "What a pitchfork looks like. Psi. And I'm not even going to think about it."

      "Well," Malone said equably, "you won't have to. If you'd rather start with the Russian-spy end of things, you can do that."

      "What I'd rather do," Boyd said, "is resign."

      "Next year," Malone said instantly. "For now, you can wait around until the dossiers come up--they're for the Senate Office Building technicians, and they're on the way. You can go over them, and start checking on any known Russian agents in the country for contacts. You can also start checking on the dossiers, and in general for any hanky-panky."

      Boyd blinked. "Hanky-panky?" he said.

      "It's a perfectly good word," Malone said, offended. "Or two words. Anyhow, you can start on that end, and not worry about anything else."

      "It's going to haunt me," Boyd said.

      "Well," Malone said, "eat lots of ectoplasm and get enough sleep, and everything will be fine. After all, I'm going to have to do the real end of the work, the psionics end. I may be wrong, but--"

      He was interrupted by the phone. He flicked the switch and Andrew J. Burris' face appeared on the screen.

      "Malone," Burris said instantly, "I just got a complaint from the State Department that ties in with your work. Their translator has been acting up."

      Malone couldn't say anything for a minute.

      "Malone," Burris went on. "I said--"

      "I heard you," Malone said. "And it doesn't have one."

      "It doesn't have one what?" Burris said.

      "A pig-Latin circuit," Malone said. "What else?"

      Burris' voice was very calm. "Malone," he said, "what does pig-Latin have to do with anything?"

      "You said--"

      "I said one of the State Department translators was acting up," Burris said. "If you want details--"

      "I don't think I can stand them," Malone said.

      "Some СКАЧАТЬ