"Davis, Jerry - Elko the Potter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

clone here and sent you back with a rock strapped to your back. Do
you understand me? Do you, Elko?"
"Yes."
"Have you said a word about this to anyone else?"
"No."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes."
"Okay, then. Forget about it. I mean it, if you open your
mouth and destroy everything I worked on, my whole god damned
career, you'll be right back in that river. You have my promise on
that!"
Elko left Raymond's office with the promise still ringing in
his ears. All through the day he kept trying not to think about
it. During his classes he tried not to think about it. During
dinner that night, in Franz's apartment, he was consciously not
saying anything about it.
"It's absurd," John was saying, "they bring me here and they
expect me to teach politics and leadership. But they wont' let me
join in their politics or lead anybody. Have you gentlemen noticed
that, honored as we're supposed to be, we're not really citizens
in this society? We're not. We more resemble possessions than
anything else. Items in a collection. Pass the salt, would you,
Elko?"
Elko passed the salt, consciously not saying anything.
"I know the feeling," Franz said. "They brought me here and
filled my head with this Esperanto language, interpreted the way
they wanted it to be interpreted, then sat me in front of a class
and expected me to teach creative writing. How can I teach these
kids how to write, especially in a class? The best thing I say to
them is, 'Lock yourself alone in a room and write your thoughts.'
And another thing, they set me in front of a word processor and
say, 'Write anything you like.' On a word processor? How can you
concentrate on writing with a word processor? It's the most
fascinating device I've ever seen, so much so that I'm more
interested in the word processor than my writing. I find that this
computer device can do so much more than word processing, and that
I can use it to do just about anything. So I learn a programming
language and I start writing programs. Is Technica happy? Are they
supportive? No, they want me to write fiction. Well, fiction
writing was the first part of my life. They give me a new life, I
take up a new career. If we had computers back in the old days I
never would have been a writer."
Elko's silence broke. He couldn't help it. "Professor Burns
told me today that they're growing a clone of me to send back in
time to die in my place."
"That is so that they don't change history," Franz said. "As
if they were able to do such a thing. They have to act like they
can change history, though, to be able to time travel. What
actually happened, though, is that you never did drown in that
river. Your clone did."