"Jerry Davis - Random Acts" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

2. THE FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CUBE


I'm still recovering from my hangover the next morning when Tom
shows up with Felix and our lawyer Aaron, our traditional Sunday morning
guests. Pris is already there, sitting on my bed and looking at the
terrariums with interest. I hardly notice when everyone else comes in;
Pris has all my attention.
Aaron is a tall, lanky man with red hair, taller than Tom but not
so broad of shoulders. He always has an amused expression on his face,
or at least every time I see him. I think Tom and I amuse him . . .
we've known him for years, even before Tom and I knew each other. I
really like Aaron. I like Felix, too, but I never liked the way Felix
looks at Pris.
Felix is a professional student at Berkeley, although Berkeley is
not the only university he's attended. He's been down in UCLA, where Tom
graduated, and back East at Yale, though I hear he hadn't lasted long
there . . . and at other places I can't recall. He is an expert at just
about everything, but he doesn't apply himself or use any of his talents
to make money. He just keeps studying. Today he's being an electronics
surveillance expert because that's what Tom has decided is behind all
this little red light business.
Felix, like Aaron, has red hair, but that's where the similarity
ends. Felix is short and skinny and freckled and boyish, and sometimes
downright juvenile. He gives me a smile as he unpacks some equipment
from a tattered suitcase lined with foam rubber; there's something in
the smile I don't like. I think he's humoring me . . . he doesn't
believe I've seen the little red light.
"Here," Felix says to Pris, handing her a black and silver device
that's obviously hand-built. "Hold that button down and wave it around
the room." Pris looks gleeful that she's an active part of this
mysterious event, and eagerly takes the device.
"This button?"
"Uh-huh. It's a bug detector. If there's anything in this room
that's transmitting, it'll tell us." He smiles at her. She smiles back,
doing as he instructed.
I don't like this at all. "It was a laser beam I saw last night."
Felix frowns at my tone of voice. "We're getting to that. Don't get
all huffy."
Pris laughs.
Felix pulls out an aerosol can of Christmas snow and pops off the
plastic top. A little white piece of paper falls out and he snatches it
up with a surprised look. "My God, that's where I put it!"
"What?" Pris asks.
"Window pane! Why didn't I remember it? It was symbolic." He looks
at us to see if we're following his cryptic logic. "I spray this stuff
on window panes, get it? So this is where I hid my window pane."
"What is it?" Pris asks.