"Chalker, Jack L - G.O.D. Inc 2 - The Shadow Dancers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

THE SHADOW DANCERSTHE SHADOW DANCERS

Copyright й 1987 by Jack L. Chalker
ebook ver. 1.0

For Will F. Jenkins,
who as "Murray Leinster"
took the parallel world concept
and made it infinite so the rest of us
could play in his yard.


1.
A Summons From G.O.D.

Cleopatra Jones stared down at the twinkling lights of the city from her
luxurious penthouse apartment; her city, the city she protected and watched
over. Her slim, glamorous face and form reflected back from the window, a
ghostly angel of perfection against the night scene . . .
Oh, hell, who was I tryin' to kid, anyway? Yeah, it was dark and I was lookin'
out the window, but all cities look glamorous and mysterious at night, even
Philadelphia, and only thing the woman starin' back at me in the glass had in
common with tall, lean Cleo was that we were both black females who'd come up in
the world.
It hadn't taken me long to put the weight back on that I'd lost back in that
Garden place, though I wasn't as bad as I had been. Truth is, the most fattenin'
stuff in the world is also about the cheapest, and when you're dirt poor you
wind up with lots of peanut butter and real fatty stuff cause it goes further
and fills better. Oh, the tummy was still okay, but the hips were growin' and so
were my tits, which seemed oversized even when I was down at my model weight
(thanks, Ma!). At five six, with a naturally round face and lots of bushy hair
(I know it's not in fashion but it's the only way I could ever control it
without spendin' two hours a day on it) I looked, well, plump, anyway.
I guess we was the only self-made poor folk in the Camden ghetto back then.
Daddy was a retired Army colonel; he coulda done better by just bein'
retired-there weren't too many retired black colonels then. But, no, he'd been a
cop in the Army and he was a little too old to be a cop after and a little too
black in that day and time to be a commissioner or police advisor, and he had
this dream.
Back then there wasn't a single black-owned and operated private detective
agency in the area-those that had the background didn't have the bread to get
started. He pumped it all into settin' that agency up. Not much-a dingy office
overlookin' a side street in one of the lousier sections of the ghetto even back
then, some secondhand furniture and files, and a phone and a sign on the
directory and the glass door to the office. Spade & Marlowe, PI. With Ma as his
secretary he got enough clients to pay the bills, with a little help from his
pension. Trouble was, the clients weren't exactly the well-to-do types and we
pretty much got peanuts even when he did his job right-if we got anything at
all.
My comin' along pretty well finished off any surplus, although I always knew