"Bester, Alfred - Fondly Faranheit (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bester Alfred)

УWonТt you tell us?Ф I asked intently. УI. . . weТre very much interested in what could go wrong with an android.Ф
УNo, Mr. Venice,Ф Wanda said. УItТs a unique idea and weТve got to protect it. One thesis like this and weТll be set up for life. We canТt take the chance of somebody stealing it.Ф
УCanТt you give us a hint?Ф
УNo. Not a hint. DonТt say a word, Jed. But IТll tell you this much, Mr. Venice. IТd hate to be the man who owns that android.Ф -
УYou mean the police?Ф I asked.
УI mean projection, Mr. Venice. Psychotic projection! ThatТs the danger. . . and I wonТt say any more. IТve said too much as is.Ф
I heard steps outside, and a hoarse voice singing softly: УBe fleet be fleet, cool and discreet, honey. . . .У My android entered the room, home from its tour of duty at the university power plant. It was not introduced. I motioned to it and I immediately responded to the command and went to the beer keg and took over VandaleurТs job of serving the guests. Its accomplished fingers writhed in a private rumba of their own. Gradually they stopped their squirming, and the strange humming ended.
Androids were not unusual at the university. The wealthier students owned them along with cars and planes. VandaleurТs Сandroid provoked no comment, but young Wanda was sharpeyed and quick-witted. She noted my bruised forehead and she was intent on the history-making, thesis she and Jed Stark were going to write. After the party broke up, she consulted with Jed walking upstairs to her room.
УJed, whyТd that android have a bruised forehead?Т
УProbably hurt itself, Wanda. ItТs working in the power
plant. They fling a lot of heavy stuff around.Ф УThat all?Ф
УWhat else?Ф
УIt could be a convenient bruise.Ф
УConvenient for what?Ф
УHiding whatТs stamped on its forehead.Ф
УNo point to that, Wanda. You donТt have to see marks on a forehead to recognize an android. You donТt have to see a trademark on a car to know itТs a car.Ф
УI donТt mean itТs trying to pass as a human. I mean itТs trying to pass as a lower-grade android.Ф -
УWhy?Ф -
УSuppose it had MA on its forehead.Ф
УMultiple aptitude? Then why in hell would Venice waste it stoking furnaces if it could earn moreЧ Oh. Oh! You mean itТsЧ?Т
Wanda nodded.
УJesus!Ф Stark pursued his lips. УWhat do we do? Call the police?Ф
УNo. We donТt know if itТs an MA for a fact. If it turns out to be an MA and the killing android, our paper comes first anyway. This is our big chance, Jed. If itТs that android we can run a series of controlled tests andЧФ
УHow do we find out for sure?Ф
УEasy. Infrared film. ThatТll show whatТs under the bruise.
Borrow a camera. WeТll sneak down to the power.plant tomorrow afternoon and take some pictures. Then weТll know.Ф
They stole down into the university power plant the follow
ing afternoon. It was a vast cellar, deep under the earth. It was dark, shadowy, luminous with burning light from the furnace doors. Above the mar of the fires they could hear a- strange voice shouting and chanting in the echoing vault: УAll rent! All rent! So jeet your seat. Be fleet be fleet, cool and discreet, honey And they could see a capering figure dancing a lunatic rumba in time to the music it shouted. The legs twisted.
The arms waved. The fingers writhed.
Jed Stark raised the camera and began shooting his spool of infrared film, aiming the camera sights at that bobbing head.
Then Wanda shrieked, for I saw them and came charging down
on them, brandishing a polished steel shovel. It smashed the
camera. It felled the girl and then the boy. Jed fought me for
a desperate hissing moment before he was bludgeoned into helplessness. Then the android dragged them to the furnace and fed them to the flames, slowly, hideously. It capered and sang-. Then it returned to my hotel.
The thermometer in the power plant registered 100.9░ mur
- derously Fahrenheit. All reet! All reet!

We bought steerage on the Lyra Queen and Vandaleur and the android did odd jobs for their meals. During the night watches, Vandaleur would sit alone in the steerage head with a cardboard portfolio on his lap, puzzling over its contents. That portfolio was all he had managed to bring with him from Lyra Alpha. He had stolen it from WandaТs room. It was labeled ANDROID. It contained the secret of my sickness. -
And it contained nothing but newspapers. Scores of newspapers from all over the galaxy, printed, microfilmed, en graved, etched, offset, photostated. . . Rigel Star-Banner
Paragon Picayune. . - Megastar Times-Leader. . . Lalande Herald.. . Lacaille Journal. . . Indi Intelligencer. . . Eridani Telegram-News. All rent! All rent!
Nothing but newspapers. Each paper contained an account of one crime in the androidТs ghastly career. Eath paper also contained news, domestic andforeign, sports, society, weather, shipping news, stock exchange quotations, human-interest stories, features, contests, puzzles. Somewhere in that mass of uncollated facts was the secret Wanda and Jed Stark had discovered. Vandaleur pored over the papers helplessly. It was beyond,him. So jeet your seat!
УIТll sell you,Ф I told the android. УDamn you. When we land on Terra, IТll sell you. IТll settle for three percent of whatever youТre worth.Ф
УI am worth fifty-seven thousand dollars on the current exchange,Ф I told him.
УIf I canТt sell you, IТll turn you in to the police,Ф I said.
УI am valuable property,Ф I answered. УIt is forbidden to endanger valuable property. You wonТt have me destroyed.Ф
УChrist damn you!Ф Vandaleur cried. УWhat? Are you arrogant? Do you know you can trust me to protect you? Is that the secret?Ф -
The multiple-aptitude android regarded him with calm accomplished eyes. УSometimes,Ф it said, Уit is a good thing to be property.Ф
It was three below zero when the Lyra Queen dropped at Croydon Field. A mixture of ice and snow swept across the field, fizzling and exploding into steam under the QueenТs tail jets. The passengers trotted numbly across the blackened concrete to customs inspection, and thence to the airport bus that was to take them to London. Vandaleur and the android were
broke. They walked. -
By midnight they reached Piccadilly Circus. The December ice storm had not slackened and the statue of Eros was encrusted with ice. They turned nght, walked down to Trafalgar Square and then along the Strand, shaking with cold and wet. Just above Fleet Street, Vandaleur saw a solitary figure coming from the direction of St. PaulТs. He drew the android into an alley.