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

accident." He stared at the reflection: the heavy shoulders, narrow flanks, long
corded legs... the sleek head with wide eyes, chiseled nose, small sensitive
mouth scarred by implacability.
"Why?" he asked. "I wouldn't change looks with the devil. I wouldn't change
places with God. Why the screaming?"
He put on a gown and glanced at the clock, unaware that he was noting the time
panorama of the solar system with an unconscious skill that would have baffled
his ancestors. The dials read:
A.D. 2301
VENUS
Mean Solar Day 22
Noon + 09 EARTH
February 15
0205 Greenwich MARS
Duodecember 35
2220 Central Syrtis
MOON
2D3H IO
1D1H GANYMEDE
6D8H
(eclipsed) CALLISTO
13D12H TITAN
15D3H
(transit) TRITON
4D9H

Night, noon, summer, winter... without bothering to think, Reich could have
rattled off the time and season for any meridian on any body in the solar
system. Here in New York it was a bitter morning after a bitter night of
dreaming. He would give himself a few minutes of analysis with the Esper
psychiatrist he retained. The screaming had to stop.
"E for Esper," he muttered. "Esper for Extra Sensory Perception... For
Telepaths, Mind Readers, Brain Peepers. You'd think a mind-reading doctor could
stop the screaming. You'd think an Esper M.D. would earn his money and peep
inside your head and stop the screaming. Those damned mindreaders are supposed
to be the greatest advance since Homo sapiens evolved. E for Evolution.
Bastards! E for Exploitation!"
He yanked open the door, shaking with fury.
"But I'm not afraid!" he shouted. "I'm never afraid."
He stepped down the corridor, clacking his sandals sharply on the silver floor,
ke-tat-ke-tat-ke-tat-ke-tat, indifferent to the slumber of his house staff,
unaware that this early morning skeletal clack awakened twelve hearts to hatred
and dread. He thrust open the door of his analyst's suite, entered and at once
lay down on the couch.
Carson Breen, Esper Medical Doctor 2, was already awake and ready for him. As
Reich's staff analyst he slept the "nurse's sleep" in which he remained en
rapport with his patient and could only be awakened by his needs. That one
scream had been enough for Breen. Now he was seated alongside the couch, elegant
in embroidered gown (his job paid twenty thousand credits a year) and sharply
alert (his employer was generous but demanding).