"Samuel R. Delany - Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Samuel R)

whole gang of real nasty-grimies тАФSingers are famous for that sort of thing. With one more or less
presentable thief, Spinnel was getting off light. Beside us rocks broke away into the city. Behind the gate
to our left the gardens rolled up towards the first of the towers. The twelve immense, luxury apartment
buildings menaced the lower clouds.

тАЬHawk the Singer,тАЭ Hawk said into the speaker at the side of the gate. Clang and tic-tic-tic and Clang.
We walked up the path to the doors and doors of glass.

A cluster of men and women in evening dress were coming out. Three tiers of doors away they saw us.
You could see them frowning at the guttersnipe whoтАЩd somehow gotten into the lobby (for a moment I
thought one of them was Maud, because she wore a sheath of the fading fabric, but she turned; beneath
her veil her face was dark as roasted coffee); one of the men recognized him, said something to the
others. When they passed us they were smiling. Hawk paid about as much attention to them as he had to
the girls on the subway. But when theyтАЩd passed, he said, тАЬOne of those guys was looking at you.тАЭ

тАЬYeah. I saw.тАЭ

тАЬDo you know why?тАЭ

тАЬHe was trying to figure out whether weтАЩd met before.тАЭ

тАЬHad you?тАЭ

I nodded. тАЬRight about where I met you, only back when IтАЩd just gotten out of jail. I told you IтАЩd been
here once before.тАЭ

тАЬOh.тАЭ

Blue carpet covered three-quarters of the lobby. A great pool filled the rest in which a row of twelve foot
trellises stood, crowned with flaming braziers. The lobby itself was three stories high, domed and mirror
tiled.

Twisting smoke curled towards the ornate grill. Broken reflections sagged and recovered on the walls.
The elevator door folded about us its foil petals. There was the distinct feeling of not moving while
seventy-five stories shucked down around us.

We got out on the landscaped roof garden. A very tanned, very blond man wearing an apricot jump-suit,
from the collar of which emerged a black turtleneck dicky, came down the rocks (artificial) between the
ferns (real) growing the stream (real water; phony current).

тАЬHello! Hello!тАЭ Pause. тАЬIтАЩm terribly glad you decided to come after all.тАЭ Pause. тАЬFor a while I thought
you werenтАЩt going to make it.тАЭ The Pauses were to allow Hawk to introduce me. I was dressed so that
Spinnel had no way of telling whether I was a miscellaneous Nobel laureate that Hawk happened to have
been dining with, or a varlet whose manners and morals were even lower than mine happen to be.

тАЬShall I take your jacket?тАЭ Alexis offered.

Which meant he didnтАЩt know Hawk as well as he would like people to think. But I guess he was sensitive
enough to realize from the little cold things that happened in the boyтАЩs face that he should forget his offer.