"Ron Goulart - A Talent For The Invisible" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goulart Ron)

A Talent For The
Invisible
Ron Goulart
COPYRIGHT ┬й 1973, BY RON GOULART
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


CHAPTER 1
Robots were chasing him.
It was a clean warm morning, about 6:30 AM, in the late spring of the
year 2020 and Jake Conger was jogging along one of the high, wide,
plastic ramps which connected the towers of Manhattan. Conger was a
lean tan man of thirty one, wearing a one-piece running suit. The robots, a
pair of them, were roughly humanoid, cocoa-colored, and about fifty yards
behind him.
One of the brown robots had a pixphone screen mounted in his chest.
"Assignment," he called to Conger, narrowing the distance between them
to fifty feet.
Conger continued jogging along the lemon-yellow noryl plastic ramp.
He was over a thousand feet above the ground level of the city. The dozens
of other pastel-tinted pedestrian ramps above and below him made bright
cat's cradles in the warming May morning.
"Assignment," repeated the pixphone robot as he and his partner
caught up.
"So tell me," said Conger, still running.
The cocoa-brown robot gestured at a tufted air-float bench they were
passing. "Wouldn't you like to stop by the side of the ramp while we
confab."
"No," Conger told him. "I still have five miles to do."
 "How many miles do you run every day?"
"Ten."
The brown robot nodded. "That sounds very good. Running is supposed
to be splendid for your inner workings. Heart, lungs and similar mec . . ."
"What about the assignment?"
"Well, yes, all right." The robot matched his stride to Conger's. His
partner dropped a few yards behind, being full of data he couldn't run as
fast. "The Wild Talent Division of the United States Remedial Functions
Agency sent us to fetch you, Agent Conger. They have a highly secret and
vastly important job for you."
"This is supposed to be my layoff month."
"The boss specifically requested you."
"Why me?"
"You're the only invisible agent RFA has free and unassigned at the
moment."
"I was planning to take a hopper tour of Connecticut today. There's a
new seaweed restaurant in
Mystic I want to try." He ran silently for a few seconds. "Okay. I'll take
the job. What's the problem?"
"People are coming back to life."
Conger slowed his jogging pace some. "Huh?"