"Busby, F M - Demu 01-03 - The Demu Trilogy UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Busby F M)

Cage a Man

FOR ELINOR

A Cage There Was

The ceiling above him was low and gray; Barton's first
thought was. What am I doing in the drunk tank? On sec-
ond thought it didn't stink like a drunk tank, and Barton
was far enough awake to know that he was not hung over.
So he sat up and looked around. The first thing he noticed
was that he was naked, along with everybody else. If this
were a drunk tank, it had to be the first coeducational
nude drunk tank in his limited experience.

He could make no guess as to .where he was, or why.
Presumably there was some other place he'd rather be,
somewhere he belongedЧbut when he tried to think of
one he drew a blank. Briefly, he wondered why the lack
didn't bother him.

He seemed to be the only person awake; at least no one
else was sitting up. Looking, Barton estimated about fifty
persons sprawled in the room, neither crowded nor widely
separated in a space about twenty-five feet square. He
stood, and found the ceiling claustrophobically low: not
much over six feet, clearing his head by a few inches but
heavy'-heavy-hanging over it. He didn't like that.

Floor and walls were gray, as well as the ceiling. Sol-
idly. There were no openings that he could see, anywhere.
There was light, a little yellowish, but no visible sources;

the light was simply there. The gray surfaces were not
luminous and the air did not glow. Barton skipped that;

it wasn't important. What was important was that he had
to take a leak.

No place. He stepped gingerly over and around the
sleeping bodies, noting little about them except that they
breathed. When he accidentally touched one, it was warm.
The floor was at body temperature also, with a slight de-
gree of "give." After exploring the room thoroughly. Bar-
ton was faced with the fact that it was not only solid but
seamless. Yet the air (warm, like the floor) was fresh and
clean. It seemed to move against him gently from all di-
rections, though be could detect no gross air currents.

He still had to pee. Going to one comer of the room,