"Aldridge, Ray - The Spine DiversV1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Aldridge Ray)

"Where?" I had been in a monosyllabic mood for months.

"A planet called Raarea. A village where they do something very dangerous; they swim alone through tidal caverns, hunting a big mean fish. They use a speargun."

"Why?"

"They extract a drug from the big mean fish. Now get this: it's a no-fear drug. When you're on it, you aren't afraid of anything. Just what you need, Michael."

"Thank you."

"Think nothing of it. And picture this: some of these divers, who swim through these black caverns, carried by vicious tides from one ocean to another, flying under mountains in the darkness, chasing a creature that would just love to cut them to small scraps . . . some of them, they don't even use the drug."

A synthetic version of the drug is available on Dilvermoon. It causes a sort of mentational leprosy in its addicts -- fear, after all, is a necessary thing. Without fear, we avoid much of the pain of the psychic injuries we receive, and parts of our hearts rot away unnoticed.

But it must be different, here in the village. Or perhaps not; many folk come here to buy the courage to leave their lives, or for other, less-understandable purposes.

I heard a footfall, close behind me. I turned quickly and jumped up, afraid that some criminal was stalking me, but it was the woman I had seen at the house, her identity plain in the moonlight. Her expression was less readable. Curiosity? Annoyance? I couldn't tell.

Against the evening chill, she wore a white shirt, unbuttoned to the waist.

"Hello," she said, in a low soft voice, an incongruously sweet voice.

"Hello," I answered.

"Don't be afraid," she said, as she came up to me.

"I'm not," I said, in somewhat hollow tones.

She smiled and stood too close to me. "You're not? Odorini said you were a man who was afraid of everything." She seemed to realize that this might not be a very friendly conversational gambit. "Of course, he doesn't mean that in a bad way."

My recorders were still running; I hardly thought of them. "You're a friend of his?"

She shrugged. "He told me to look for you here."

I became aware of her perfume, a light scent, reminiscent of fresh-cut hay and flowers -- an odd scent in this stony seascape.

"Do you generally do what Odorini tells you to do?"

"He's my father, or so I'm told. I give him respect. Besides, he said I might find you interesting. And that you would definitely find me interesting."

I'd run out of things to say. She came even closer, so that I could almost feel the warmth of her body. She was almost exactly my height; her eyes were inches from mine when she spoke again.

"Does this seem ugly to you?" She looked down and traced with her finger the scar across her breast.

"No," I said, a bit breathlessly. I was by now quite frightened. The encounter had taken on an erotic menace for which I was completely unprepared. What was going on? Who was this woman? Who was Odorini and what was he up to?

"Am I beautiful to you, then?"

Her eyes had a strange blind glitter. I wondered if she were under the influence of the drug.