"Alan Dean Foster - Flinx 2 - Tar Aiym Krang" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

commoner nuances of thranx gesture and gaze, Mother Mastiff was an expert and knew them all. Her
eyes were bright enough to read the capital letters flashing there: SALE.
The husband commenced negotiations in an admirably of hand manner, 'Well ... perhaps
something might be engendered ... we already have a number of such baubles ... exorbitant prices
... a reasonable level ...'
'Level! You speak of levels?' Mother Mastiff's gasp of outrage was sufficiently violent to
carry the odour of garlic all the way to where Flinx stood. The thranx, remarkably, ignored it.
'Good sir, I survive at but a subsistence level now". The government takes all my money, and I
have left but it pittance, a pittance, sir, for my three sons and two daughters!'
Flinx shook his head in admiration of Mother Mastiff's unmatched style. Thranx offspring
always came in multiples of two, an inbred survival trait. With most things terrene and human
there had been little or no conflict, but due to a quirk of psychology the thranx could not help
but regard human odd-numbered births as both pathetic and not a little obscene.
'Thirty credits,' she finally sighed.
'Blasphemous!' the husband cried, his antennae quivering violently. 'They are worth
perhaps ten, and at that I flatter the craftsman unmercifully.'
'Ten!' moaned Mother Mastiff, feigning a. swoon. 'Ten the creature says, and boasts of it
I Surely ... surely, sir, you do not expect me to consider such an offer seriously'. 'Tis not even
successful as a jest.'
Fifteen, then, and I should report you to the local magistrate Even common thieves have
the decency to work incognito.'
'Twenty-five. Sir, you, a cultured and wealthy being, surely you can do better than taunt
and make sport of an old female. One who has doubtless fertilized as many eggs as you ..." The
female had the grace to lower her head and blush. The thranx were quite open about sex ... their's
or anyone else's ... but still, Flinx thought, there were lines over which it was improper to
step.
Good manners it might not have been, but in this case at least it appeared to be good


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business. The male harrumphed awkwardly, a deep, vibrant hum. 'Twenty, then.'
'Twenty-three five., and a tenth credit less I will not say!' intoned Mother Mastiff. She
folded her arms in a recognizable gesture of finality.
'Twenty-one,' countered the male.
Mother Mastiff shook her head obstinately, immovable as a Treewall. She looked ready to
wait out entropy.
'Twenty-three five, not a tenth credit less. My last and final offer, good sir. This pair
will find its own market. I must survive, and I fear I may have allowed you to sway me too far
already.'
The male wouid have argued further, on principle if for nothing else, but at that point
the female put a truehand on his b-thorax, just below the ear, and stroked lightly. That ending
the bargaining.
'Ahhh, Dark Centres! Twenty-five ... no, twenty-three five, then! Thief! Assaulter of
reason! It is well known that a human would cheat its own female-parent to make a half- credit!'
'And it is well known also,' replied Mother Mastiff smoothiy as she processed the sale,
'that the thranx are the most astute bargainers in the galaxy. You have gotten yourself a steal,
sir, and so 'tis you and not I the thief"
As soon as the exchange of credit had been finalized, Flinx left his resting place by the