"Philip Jose Farmer - Night of Light" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

must be extraordinarily strong, if this thing takes place outside you.тАЭ
тАЬI have no problems I canтАЩt whip,тАЭ growled Carmody out of one comer of his mouth,
his cigarette bobbing from the other corner like a challenging rapier.
Tand shrugged. тАЬHave it your own way. My only advice for you is to take a spaceship
while there is still time. The last one leaves within four hours. After that, none will arrive
or depart until the time for the Sleep is past. By then, who knows. . .?тАЭ
Carmody wondered if Tand was being ironic, if he knew that he could not leave
DanteтАЩs Joy, that heтАЩd be arrested the moment he touched a Federation port.
He also wondered if Tand could have the slightest idea what he was planning as a
means to leave DanteтАЩs Joy in full safety. Now, having regained full control of his hands,
he took them from his pockets and removed the cigarette from his mouth. Damn it, he
said, silently mouthing the words, why are you hesitant, Carmody, old buddy? Lost your
guts? No, not you. ItтАЩs you against the universe, as it has always been, and youтАЩve never
been afraid. You either attack a problem, and destroy it, or else ignore it. But this is so
strange you canтАЩt seem to grapple with it. Well, so what? Wait until the strangeness wears
off, then. . . BLAM! youтАЩve got it in your hands and youтАЩll rip it apart, choke the life out
of it, just as you did withтАФ
His hands clenched in memory of what they had done, and his lips stiffened into the
beginning of a silent snarl. That face blowing through the air. WasnтАЩt there a
resemblance. . . could it have been. . . No!
тАЬYou are asking me to believe the impossible,тАЭ he said. тАЬI know that many strange
things happen here on this planet, but what I saw, well, I just canтАЩt think thatтАФтАЬ
тАЬI have seen you Earthmen before when confronted by this,тАЭ interrupted Tand. тАЬTo
you it seems like something from one of your fairy tales or myths. Or, perhaps, from that
incredible phenomenon you call a nightmare, which we Kareenans do not experience.тАЭ
тАЬNo,тАЭ said Carmody. тАЬYour nightmares occur outside you, every seven years. And
even then most of you escape them by Sleeping, while we human beings canтАЩt encounter
them except by means of sleeping.тАЭ
He paused, smiled his rapid, cold smile, and added, тАЬBut I am different from most
Earthmen. I do not dream; I have no nightmares.тАЭ
тАЬI understand,тАЭ replied Tand evenly and apparently without malice, тАЬthat that is
because you differ from most of themтАФand usтАФin that you have no conscience. Most
Earthmen, unless I have been misinformed about them, would suffer troublings of the
mind if they had killed their wives in cold blood.тАЭ
The narrow walls of the booth thundered with CarmodyтАЩs laughter. Tand looked
emotionlessly at him until he had subsided into chuckling, then said, тАЬYou laugh loud
enough but not nearly so loud as that.тАЭ
He waved his hand to indicate the wind howling down the street.
Carmody did not understand what he meant. He was disappointed; heтАЩd expected the
usual violent reaction to his amusement at the subject of his тАЬcrime.тАЭ Perhaps the fellow
was a policeman. Otherwise, in the face of CarmodyтАЩs laughter, how explain the stiff
self-control? But it might be that he was untouched because the murder had happened on
Earth and to a Terrestrial. An individual of one species found it difficult to get excited
about the murder of a person belonging to another, especially if it was 10,000 light-years
away.
However, there was the universally admitted deep empathy of the natives of DanteтАЩs
Joy; they were acknowledged to be the most ethical beings in the world, the most
sensitive.
Abruptly bored, Carmody said, тАЬIтАЩm going back to Mother KriтАЩs. You coming along?тАЭ
тАЬWhy not? TonightтАЩs the last supper sheтАЩll be serving for some time. SheтАЩs going to