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Arm of the Law
Arm of the Law
Arm of the Law
Ebook26 pages24 minutes

Arm of the Law

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

An experiment in robotic law enforcement goes awry in this thought-provoking read from the golden age of science fiction.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 16, 2015
ISBN9781515402053
Author

Harry Harrison

Harry H Harrison Jr. is a bestselling writer with more than 3.5 million books in print. He has been the subject of two documentaries. His books have been listed on the New York Times and Book Sense list of bestselling non-fiction trade paperback books for over ten years. They are also available in some thirty foreign countries.  

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Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked seeing Harrison's early voice, but this story about a police robot helping to shake up a (space) colonial corrupt police department didn't really do anything interesting.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A great and quite amusing little tale
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A police robot is sent to an out-of-the-way post for testing, and quickly cleans up the town. Gritty, fast-paced, short story, with the robot always having exactly what's needed to do the job - he's a Superman without the need of a secret identity.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A well-written story about the consequences of sending a straight-arrow robot to be a cop in a crooked Martian town.

Book preview

Arm of the Law - Harry Harrison

Arm of the Law

by Harry Harrison

Cover Image © Can Stock Photo Inc. / sarah5

Positronic Publishing

PO Box 632

Floyd, VA 24091

ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-0205-3

First Positronic Publishing Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

It was a big, coffin-shaped plywood box that looked like it weighed a ton. This brawny type just dumped it through the door of the police station and started away. I looked up from the blotter and shouted at the trucker’s vanishing back.

What the hell is that?

How should I know? he said as he swung up into the cab. I just deliver, I don’t X-ray ‘em. It came on the morning rocket from earth is all I know. He gunned the truck more than he had to and threw up a billowing cloud of red dust.

Jokers, I growled to myself. Mars is full of jokers.

When I went over to look at the box I could feel the dust grate between my teeth. Chief Craig must have heard the racket because he came out of his office and helped me stand and look at the box.

Think it’s a bomb? he asked in a bored voice.

Why would anyone bother—particularly with a thing this size? And all the way from earth.

He nodded agreement and walked around to look at the other end. There was no sender’s address anywhere on the outside. Finally we had to dig out the crowbar and I went to work on the top. After some prying it pulled free and fell off.

That was when we had our first look at Ned. We all would have been a lot happier if it had been our last look as well. If we had just put the lid back on and shipped the thing back to earth! I know now what they mean about Pandora’s Box.

But we just stood there and stared like

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