Retief and the Rascals (34 page)

Magnan. noticing nothing, continued to flee, unpursued. He
reached a narrowing in the passage, where a great bool-wood door stood
half-open. He grabbed it in passing and slammed it, in Retief's face. The latch
clack!
ed decisively. Retief skidded to a halt and tried the knob. It was
fixed as solidly as the wall of living stone beside him. Before he could move,
an explosion threw him back against the opposite wall and down into a
bottomless pit     

RETIEF AND THE RASCALS

KEITH LAUMER

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events
portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or
incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 1993 by Keith Laumer

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this
book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, N.Y. 10471

ISBN: 0-671-72168-2

Cover art by Gary Ruddell

First printing, May 1993

Distributed by

SIMON & SCHUSTER

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, N.Y. 10020

Printed in the United States of America

* * * * * *

Back cover

THE GROACI

WERE UP TO THEIR

OLD TRICKS—

BUT WHY ...?

            Things were lively enough on Bloor, where the
constant feuding between rival outlaw gangs gave visitors to the beleaguered
planet a quick lesson in the art of keeping one's head down. But now the
five-eyed Groaci were sending in an invasion fleet to take over, and the wimpy
diplomats of the CDT, of course, were busily practicing Looking the Other Way
No Matter What's Going On Under One's Nose.

            Except for the indomitable extraordinaire
Retief, Terran diplomat extraordinaire and two-fisted interstellar trouble-shooter
...