"Ron Goulart - Spacehawk Inc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goulart Ron)

remaining catman.
"Here now," said the android priest, turning. "We'll have no more of your brawling." His little
finger sent a thin purple beam toward the cat-man's back.
"Yow!" he exclaimed, and collapsed on top of Kip.
"There now." The android smiled benevolently at the girl. "I've surely done a good afternoon's
work for the Mysterious Something whichтАФ"
 "Schmuck!" the girl said to him as she leaped from her bed. "He's going to smother."
Kip was still underneath the senseless catman, choking, waving his hands and trying to unseat
him.
"Will you please help?" the girl asked the priest.
"To be sure, my dear. In fact, I have a finger here, some place, which has telekinetic abilities. I'll
lift that oaf away in a jiffy." He aimed his right hand and pointed his ring finger.
A hymn started playing, but the catman remained weighing down Kip.
"Well, sir, may the Mysterious Something bless me if I can figure why thatтАФ"
"Your thumb, idiot," gasped Kip.
"Oh, so it is. I'm so involved with the work of the Mvsterious Something here on Barnum that I
sometimes forget, which finger is which." He cocked the thumb and the catman went flipping off onto the
floor.
"Oh, dear sweet Kip," The girl put her hands on his shoulders, lifting him up. "Have they done
terrible things to you?"
"No, they were talking about doing terrible things, but fortunately ... well, that isn't quite the
word." He got to his feet, with the lovely girl's help.
"Tis all right, I expect no thanks." Father Cog slid his hands into his black pockets. "Now go
ahead and kiss the lass, I'll turn me back."
Kip narrowed one eye. "What's wrong with your voice mechanism?"
"Not a blessed thing, me boy."
"You didn't have a brogue, if that's what that is, the last time I saw you."
Nodding his head, Father Cog replied, "Aye, lad, but that, I needn't remind you, was over a
week ago. Up on the family satellite 'twas. Since then, me lad, a good deal ofтАФ"
"Peterkin," said Kip.
"Don't get angry and swear," said the girl, stroking Kip's cheek.
"Peterkin is my cousin," said Kip. "Peterkin Bobbs," vice president in charge of Research and
Design for the Barnum division of Bundy Konglom Enterprises."
"You never talk much about your family."
"Me boy," said Father Cog," 'twas indeed Peterkin, bless the lad, who modified me some. Twas
his feeling, it was, that I should be a little mellower for the work I'm doing down here among the fallen
andтАФ"
"That simp," said Kip, striding up to the hole in the wall. "I told him not to go tinkering around
with the basic designs."
"But 'tis a sad fact, lad, that Peterkin outranks you in the family company," reminded the
mechanical priest. "Now, far be it from me to sermonize. Still and all, I can't help thinking that a lad with
your potential would rise much higher in his own family's vast company if he didn't, well, fuck up so
much."
"Your shoes," said the silver-haired girl. "You don't want to go storming out of here without your
shoes, Kip."
Kip let his breath out through his nose and turned his back on the hole. "I guess I won't go
storming out at all. Let Peterkin fiddle around, IтАЩll stay here in the Fetlock Estates Minimum Security
Rehabilitation Condominium. Looking after our therapy machines is okay work for me."
"Would that I didn't have the news that I do have for you, me lad."
"What now?"