"Alfred Bester - Demolished Man, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bester Alfred)

"Some of them started a racket. They'd tax the more successful
deaf-mutes for weekly hand-outs. If the victim refused to pay, they'd
ostracize him. The victim always paid. It was a choice of paying or living
in solitary until he went mad."
"You mean you peepers are like deaf-mutes?"
"No, Ben. You normals are the deaf-mutes. If we had to live with you
alone, we'd go mad. So leave me alone. If you're nursing something dirty, I
don't want to know."
West cut off the phone in Reich's face. With a roar of rage, Reich
snatched up a gold paper-weight and hurled it into the crystal screen.
Before the shattered fragments finished flying, he was in the corridor and
on his way out of the building.
His peeper secretary knew where he was going. His peeper chauffeur
knew where he wanted to go. Reich arrived in his apartment and was met by
his peeper house-supervisor who at once announced early luncheon and dialed
the meal to Reich's unspoken demands. Feeling slightly less violent, Reich
stalked into bis study and turned to bis safe, a shimmer of light in the
corner.
It was simply a honey-comb paper rack turned out of temporal phrase
with a single-cycle beat. Each second when the safe phase and the temporal
phase coincided, the rack pulsed with a brilliant glow. The safe could only
be opened by the pore-pattern of Reich's left index finger which was
irreproducible.
Reich placed the tip of his finger in the center of the glow. It faded
and the honey-comb rack appeared. Holding his finger in place, he reached
up and took down a small black notebook and a large red envelope. He
removed his index finger and the safe pulsed out of phase again.
Reich flipped through the pages of the notebook... ABDUCTION...
ANARCHISTS... ARSONISTS... BRIBERY (PROVEN)... BRIBERY (POTENTIAL)... Under
(POTENTIAL) he found the names of fifty-seven prominent people. One of them
was Augustus Tate, Esper Medical Doctor 1. He nodded with satisfaction.
He tore open the red envelope and examined its contents. It contained
five sheets of closely written pages in a handwriting that was centuries
old. It was a message from the founder of Monarch Utilities and the Reich
clan. Four of the pages were lettered: PLAN A, PLAN B, PLAN C, PLAN D. The
fifth was headed INTRODUCTION. Reich read the ancient spidery cursive
slowly:

To those who come after me: The test of intellect is the
refusal to belabor the obvious. If you have opened this letter we
understand one another. I have prepared four general murder plans
which may help you. I bequeath them to you as part of your Reich
inheritance. They are outlines. The details must be filled in by
yourself as your time, your environment, and necessity require.
Caution: The essence of murder never changes. In every era
it remains the conflict of the killer against society with the
victim as the prize. And the ABC of conflict with society remains
constant. Be audacious, be brave, be confident and you will not
fail. Against these assets society can have no defense.