"A Maze Of Death v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dick Phillip K)

Susie said, "Do you think the sexual act makes a person impure?"
"Sometimes," he responded reflexively, still thinking about his wife. His heart labored and he felt his pulse race. "Specktowsky isn't too clear about that in The Book," he mumbled.
"You're going to take a walk with me," Susie said.
"Now? I am? Where? Why?"
"Not now. Tomorrow when it's daylight. I'll take you outside the settlement, out into the real Delmak-O. Where the strange things are, the movements that you catch out of the corner of your eye--and the Building."
"I'd like to see the Building," he said, truthfully.
Abruptly she rose. "Better get back to your living quarters, Mr. Seth Morley," she said.
"Why?" He, too, confused, rose to his feet.
"Because if you stay here your attractive wife is going to find us and create chaos and open the way for the Form Destroyer, who you say is loose outside, to get all of us." She laughed, showing perfect, pale teeth.
"Can Mary come on our walk?" he asked.
"No." She shook her head. "Just you. Okay?"
He hesitated, a flock of thoughts invading his mind; they pulled him this way and that, then departed, leaving him free to make an answer. "If I can work it," he said.
"Try. Please. I can show you all the places and life forms and things I've discovered."
"Are they beautiful?"
"S-some. Why are you looking at me so intently? You make me nervous."
"I think you're insane," he said.
"I'm just outspoken. I simply say, 'A man is a sperm's way of producing another sperm.' That's merely practical."
Seth Morley said, "I don't know much about Jungian analysis, but I certainly do not recall--" He broke off. Something had moved at the periphery of his vision.
"What's the matter?" Susie Smart asked.
He turned swiftly, and this time saw it clearly. On the top of the dresser a small gray square object inched its way forward, then, apparently aware of him, ceased moving.
In two steps he was over to it; he snatched up the object, held it gripped tightly in the palm of his hand.
"Don't hurt it," Susie said. "It's harmless. Here, give it to me." She held out her hand, and, reluctantly, he opened his enclosing fingers.
The object which he held resembled a tiny building. "Yes," Susie said, seeing the expression on his face. "It comes from the Building. It's a sort of offspring, I suppose. Anyhow it's exactly like the Building but smaller." She took it from him, for a time examined it, then placed it back on the dresser. "It's alive," she said.
"I know," he said. Holding it, he had felt the animate quality of it; it had pushed against his fingers, trying to get out.
"They're all over the place," Susie said. "Out there." She made a vague gesture. "Maybe tomorrow we can find you one."
"I don't want one," he said.
"You will when you've been here long enough."
"Why?"
"I guess they're company. Something to break the monotony. I remember as a child finding a Ganymedian toad in our garden. It was so beautiful with its shining flame and its long smooth hair that--"
Morley said, "It could have been one of these things that killed Tallchief."
"Glen Belsnor took one apart one day," Susie said. "He said--" She pondered. "It's harmless, anyhow. The rest of what he said was electronic talk; we couldn't follow it."
"And he'd know?"
"Yes." She nodded.
Seth Morley said, "You--we--have a good leader." But I don't think quite good enough, he said to himself.
"Shall we go to bed?" Susie said.
"What?" he said.
"I'm interested in going to bed with you. I can't judge a man unless I've been in bed with him."
"What about women?"
"I can't judge them at all. What, do you think I go to bed with the women, too? That's depraved. That sounds like something Maggie Walsh would do. She's a lesbian, you know. Or didn't you know?"
"I don't see that it matters. Or that it's any of our business." He felt shaky and uneasy. "Susie," he said, "you should get psychiatric help." He remembered, all at once, what the Walker-on-Earth had said to him, back at Tekel Upharsin. Maybe we all need psychiatric help, he thought. But not from Wade Frazer. That's totally, entirely out.
"You don't want to go to bed with me? You'd enjoy it, despite your initial prudery and reservations. I'm very good. I know a lot of ways. Some which you probably never heard about. I made them up myself."
"From years of experience," he said.
"Yes." She nodded. "I started at twelve."
"No," he said.
"Yes," Susie said, and grabbed him by the hand. On her face he saw a desperate expression, as if she were fighting for her life. She drew him toward her, straining with all her strength; he held back and she strained vainly.


Susie Smart felt the man pulling away from her. He's very strong, she thought. "How come you're so strong?" she asked, gasping for air; she found herself almost unable to breathe.
"Carry rocks," he said with a grin.
I want him, she thought. Big, evil, powerful. . . he could tear me to pieces, she thought. Her longing for him grew.