"Philip Jose Farmer - The Green Odyssey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

great one for fun, but I'm here primarily for business. SoтИТтИТ let's have your proposal at once, if you please,"

"First I must have your solemn oath that you will tell absolutely no one what you hear in this booth. Second,
that if you reject my idea you do not then use it later on. Third, that if you do accept you will never attempt
later on to kill me or get rid of me and thus reap the profits."

Miran's face had been blank, but at the word "profits" it twisted into many folds and creases, all expressive of
joy.

He reached into the huge purse he carried slung over his shoulder and pulled out a little golden idol of the
patron deity of the Clan Effenycan. Putting his right hand upon its ugly head, he lifted his left and said, "I
swear by Zaceffucanquanr that I will obey your wishes in this matter. May he strike me with lice, leprosy,
lecher's disease and lightning if I should break this, my solemn vow."

Satisfied, Green said, "First I want you to arrange for me to be aboard your windroller when you leave for
Estorya."

Miran choked on his wine and coughed and sputtered until Green pounded his back.

"I do not ask that you give me passage back. Now, here's my idea. You plan to be taking a large cargo of
dried fish because the Estoryans' religion requires that they eat them at every meal and because they use them
in great quantities at their numerous festivals."

"True, true. Do you know, I've never been able to figure out why they should worship a fishтИТgoddess. They
live over five thousand miles from the sea, and there's no evidence that any of them have ever been to the sea.
Yet, they demand saltwater fish, won't use the fish from a nearby lake."

"There're many mysteries about the Xurdimur. However, they needn't concern us. Now, do you know that the
Estoryans' Book of Gods places much more ritualтИТpower in freshly killed and cooked fish than in smoked
fish? However, they've always had to be content with the dried fish the windrollers brought them. What price
would they not pay for living seaтИТfish?"

Miran rubbed his palms together. "Indeed it does make one wonder...?"

Green then outlined his idea. Miran sat stunned. Not at the audacity or originality of the plan, but because it
was so obvious that he wondered why neither he nor anyone else had ever thought of it. He said so.

Green drank his wine and said, "I suppose that people wondered the same when the first wheel or bow and
arrow were invented. So obvious, yet no one thought of them until then."

"Let me get this straight," said Miran. "You want me to buy a caravan of wagons, build waterтИТtight tanks into
them and use them to transport ocean fish back to here? Then the wagon bodies, with their contents, will be
lifted onto my windroller and fitted into specially prepared racksтИТтИТ or perhaps, holesтИТтИТ on the middeck?
Also, you will show me how to analyze sea water so that its formula may be sold to the Estoryans, and they
can thus keep the fish alive in their own tanks?"

"That's right."

"Hmmm." Miran ran his fat, ringтИТstudded finger over his hook nose and the square gold ornament hanging
therefrom. His single eye glared paleтИТbluely at Green. The other was covered with a white patch to hide the