"Anthony, Piers - Adept - 06 - Unicorn Point" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

there."

"I don't give aЧwhat's a bad word?Чabout the Tan

Adept!" the child said stoutly. "I want to see."
"Pollution," Mach said.
"Beg pardon?" Agape said.
"The bad word."
Nepe considered. "No, plution's too legitmet. Maybe one

about excement."

"Nepe!" Agape exclaimed.
Mach smiled. "I am a robot. I have no need of a bad word

for excrement."

"Don't patonize me!" Nepe exclaimed furiously.
"Horse manure," Mach said contritely.
Nepe smiled victoriously. "I don't give horsemanure for

the Tan Adept!"

"Now see what you've done," Agape said sternly. "She

will be using that word everywhere."

"She has to leam adult usage some time," he pointed out,
amused. Then he spoke directly to Nepe: "But if you say
that to his face, he might swell up and burst, and the smell
would be horrible."

"Really?" she asked, delighted.

"No, not really!" Agape said, darting a frustrated glance

UNICORN POINT 119

at Mach. "But don't do it, anyway. We have to try to get
along with these people."

"Why?"

"Let her come along, and I will try to explain," Mach
said. He was flattered by the child's wish to accompany him;

normally she treated him with supreme indifference. In fact,
for the first time she was making him feel like a real relative,
causing his humor and flattery circuits to activate very much