"Dick, Philip K - Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dick Phillip K)

УAre you up?Ф the girl asked sleepily. She thrashed about, and sat facing him; quite pretty, he decided, with lovely, large eyes. УWhat time is it and did you put on the coffee pot?Ф
He tramped into the kitchen and punched the stove into life; it began to heat water for coffee. Meanwhile he heard the shutting of a door; she had gone into the bathroom. Water ran. Roni was taking a shower.
Again in the living room he switched Dr. Smile back on. УWhatТs she got to do with P. P. Layouts?Ф he asked.
УMiss Fugate is your new assistant; she arrived yesterday from PeopleТs China where she worked for P. P. Layouts as their Pre-Fash consultant for that region. However, Miss Fugate, although talented, is highly inexperienced, and Mr. Bulero decided that a short period as your assistant, I would say Сunder you,Т but that might be misconstrued, consideringЦФ
УGreat,Ф Barney said. He entered the bedroom, found his clothesЦthey had been deposited, no doubt by him, in a heap on the floorЦand began with care to dress; he still felt terrible, and it remained an effort not to give up and be violently sick. УThatТs right,Ф he said to Dr. Smile as he came back to the living room buttoning his shirt. УI remember the memo from Friday about Miss Fugate. SheТs erratic in her talent. Picked wrong on that U. S. Civil War Picture Window itemЕ if you can imagine it, she thought itТd be a smash hit in PeopleТs China.Ф He laughed.
The bathroom door opened a crack; he caught a glimpse of Roni, pink and rubbery and clean, drying herself. УDid you call me, dear?Ф
УNo,Ф he said. УI was talking to my doctor.Ф
УEveryone makes errors,Ф Dr. Smile said, a trifle vacuously.
Barney said, УHowТd she and I happen toЦФ He gestured toward the bedroom. УAfter so short a time.Ф
УChemistry,Ф Dr. Smile said.
УCome on.Ф
УWell, youТre both precogs. You previewed that youТd eventually hit it off, become erotically involved. So you both decidedЦafter a few drinksЦthat why should you wait? СLife is short, art isЦФ The suitcase ceased speaking, because Roni Fugate had appeared from the bathroom, naked, to pad past it and Barney back once more into the bedroom. She had a narrow, erect body, a truly superb carriage, Barney noted, and small, up-jutting breasts with nipples no larger than matched pink peas. Or rather matched pink pearls, he corrected himself.
Roni Fugate said, УI meant to ask you last nightЦwhy are you consulting a psychiatrist? And my lord, you carry it around everywhere with you; not once did you set it downЦand you had it turned on right up untilЦФ She raised an eyebrow and glanced at him searchingly.
УAt least I did turn it off then,Ф Barney pointed out.
УDo you think IТm pretty?Ф Rising on her toes she all at once stretched, reached above her head, then, to his amazement, began to do a brisk series of exercises, hopping and leaping, her breasts bobbing.
УI certainly do,Ф he murmured, taken aback.
УIТd weigh a ton,Ф Roni Fugate panted, Уif I didnТt do these UN Weapons Wing exercises every morning. Go pour the coffee, will you, dear?Ф
Barney said, УAre you really my new assistant at P. P. Layouts?Ф
УYes, of course; you mean you donТt remember? But I guess youТre like a lot of really topnotch precogs: you see the future so well that you have only a hazy recollection of the past. Exactly what do you recall about last night?Ф She paused in her exercises, gasping for breath.
УOh,Ф he said vaguely, УI guess everything.Ф
УListen. The only reason why youТd be carrying a psychiatrist around with you is that you must have gotten your draft notice. Right?Ф
After a pause he nodded. That he remembered. The familiar elongated blue-green envelope had arrived one week ago; next Wednesday he would be taking his mental at the UN military hospital in the Bronx.
УHas it helped? Has heЦФ She gestured at the suitcase. УЦMade you sick enough?Ф
Turning to the portable extension of Dr. Smile, Barney said, УHave you?Ф
The suitcase answered, УUnfortunately youТre still quite viable, Mr. Mayerson; you can handle ten Freuds of stress. Sorry. But we still have several days; weТve just begun.Ф
Going into the bedroom, Roni Fugate picked up her underwear, and began to step into it. УJust think,Ф she said reflectively. УIf youТre drafted, Mr. Mayerson, and youТre sent to the coloniesЕ maybe IТll find myself with your job.Ф She smiled, showing superb, even teeth.
It was a gloomy possibility. And his precog ability did not assist him: the outcome hung nicely, at perfect balance on the scales of cause-and-effect to be.
УYou canТt handle my job,Ф he said. УYou couldnТt even handle it in PeopleТs China and thatТs a relatively simple situation in terms of factoring out pre-elements.Ф But someday she could; without difficulty he foresaw that. She was young and overflowing with innate talent: all she required to equal himЦand he was the best in the tradeЦwas a few yearsТ experience. Now he became fully awake as awareness of his situation filtered back to him. He stood a good chance of being drafted, and even if he was not, Roni Fugate might well snatch his fine, desirable job from him, a job up to which he had worked by slow stages over a thirteen-year period.
A peculiar solution to the grimness of the situation, this going to bed with her; he wondered how he had arrived at it.
Bending over the suitcase, he said in a low voice to Dr. Smile, УI wish youТd tell me why the hell with everything so dire I decided toЦФ
УI can answer that,Ф Roni Fugate called from the bedroom; she had now put on a somewhat tight pale green sweater and was buttoning it before the mirror of her vanity table. УYou informed me last night, after your fifth bourbon and water. You saidЦФ She paused, eyes sparkling. УItТs inelegant. What you said was this. СIf you canТt lick Тem, join Тem.Т Only the verb you used, I regret to say, wasnТt Сjoin.ТФ
УHmm,Ф Barney said, and went into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. Anyhow, he was not far from New York; obviously if Miss Fugate was a fellow employee at P. P. Layouts he was within commute distance of his job. They could ride in together. Charming. He wondered if their employer Leo Bulero would approve of this if he knew. Was there an official company policy about employees sleeping together? There was about almost everything elseЕ although how a man who spent all his time at the resort beaches of Antarctica or in German E Therapy clinics could find time to devise dogma on every topic eluded him.
Someday, he said to himself, IТll live like Leo Bulero; instead of being stuck in New York City in 180 degree heatЦ
Beneath him now a throbbing began; the floor shook. The buildingТs cooling system had come on. Day had begun.
Outside the kitchen window the hot, hostile sun took shape beyond the other conapt buildings visible to him; he shut his eyes against it. Going to be another scorcher, all right, probably up to the twenty Wagner mark. He did not need to be a precog to foresee this.

In the miserably high-number conapt building 492 on the outskirts of Marilyn Monroe, New Jersey, Richard Hnatt ate breakfast indifferently while, with something greater than indifference, he glanced over the morning homeopapeТs weather-syndrome readings of the previous day.
The key glacier, OlТ Skintop, had retreated 4.62 Grables during the last twenty-four-hour period. And the temperature, at noon in New York, had exceeded the previous dayТs by 1.46 Wagners. In addition the humidity, as the oceans evaporated, had increased by 16 Selkirks. So things were hotter and wetter; the great procession of nature clanked on, and toward what? Hnatt pushed the Тpape away, and picked up the mail which had been delivered before dawnЕ it had been some time since mailmen had crept out in daylight hours.
The first bill which caught his eye was the aptТs cooling pro-rated swindle; he owed Conapt 492 exactly ten and a half skins for the last monthЦa rise of three-fourths of a skin over April. Someday, he said to himself, itТll be so hot that nothing will keep this place from melting; he recalled the day his l-p record collection had fused together in a lump, back around Т04, due to a momentary failure of the buildingТs cooling network. Now he owned iron oxide tapes; they did not melt. And at the same moment every parakeet and Venusian ming bird in the building had dropped dead. And his neighborТs turtle had been boiled dry. Of course this had been during the day and everyoneЦat least the menЦhad been at work. The wives, however, had huddled at the lowest subsurface level, thinking (he remembered Emily telling him this) that the fatal moment had at last arrived. And not a century from now, but now. The Caltech predictions had been wrongЕ only of course they hadnТt been; it had just been a broken power-lead from the N.Y. utility people. Robot workmen had quickly shown up and repaired it.
In the living room his wife sat in her blue smock, painstakingly painting an unfired ceramic piece with glaze; her tongue protruded and her eyes glowedЕ the brush moved expertly and he could see already that this was going to be a good one. The sight of Emily at work recalled to him the task that lay before him, today: one which he did not relish.
He said, peevishly, УMaybe we ought to wait before we approach him.Ф
Without looking up, Emily said, УWeТll never have a better display to present to him than we have now.Ф
What if he says no?Ф
УWeТll go on. What did you expect, that weТd give up just because my one-time husband canТt foreseeЦor wonТt foreseeЦhow successful these new pieces will eventually be in terms of the market?Ф
Richard Hnatt said, УYou know him; I donТt. HeТs not vengeful, is he? He wouldnТt carry a grudge?Ф And anyhow what sort of grudge could EmilyТs former husband be carrying? No one had done him any harm; if anything it had gone the other way, or so he understood from what Emily had related.
It was strange, hearing about Barney Mayerson all the time and never having met him, never having direct contact with the man. Now that would end, because he had an appointment to see Mayerson at nine this morning in the manТs office at P. P. Layouts. Mayerson of course would hold the whip hand; he could take one brief glance at the display of ceramics and decline ad hoc. No, he would say, P. P. Layouts is not interested in a min of this. Believe my precog ability, my Pre-Fash marketing talent and skill. AndЦout would go Richard Hnatt, the collection of pots under his arm, with absolutely no other place to go.
Looking out the window he saw with aversion that already it had become too hot for human endurance; the footer runnels were abruptly empty as everyone ducked for cover. The time was eight-thirty and he now had to leave; rising, he went to the hall closet to get his pith helmet and his mandatory cooling-unit; by law one had to be strapped to every commuterТs back until nightfall.
УGoodbye,Ф he said to his wife, pausing at the front door.
УGoodbye and lots of luck.Ф She had become even more involved in her elaborate glazing and he realized all at once that this showed how vast her tension was; she could not afford to pause even a moment. He opened the door and stepped out into the hall, feeling the cool wind of the portable unit as it chugged from behind him. УOh,Ф Emily said, as he began to shut the door; now she raised her head, brushing her long brown hair back from her eyes. УVid me as soon as youТre out of BarneyТs office, as soon as you know one way or another.Ф
УOkay,Ф he said, and shut the door behind him.