"James E. Gunn - The Magicians" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

think so."
"Then couldn't you do this, too? What does your other client want you to do?"
"The same as you."
"Then it wouldn't hurt to tell me if you find it out, would it, Gabriel?" she said urgently. "Please,
Gabriel." Her blue eyes were anxious on mine. I looked into them as long as I dared.
"I guess not," I said. I never could resist blue eyes that looked trustingly into mine.
She breathed again. "Who is your client?"
"I'm not supposed to tell you that," I said, "but I guess it doesn't matter. I don't suppose it's her
real name, or maybe even her real appearance. It's a Mrs. Peabody. A little old lady. Know her?"
She shook her head impatiently. "It could be anybody. We all go under assumed names when
we're together, and most of us change our appearances, too, so that we won't be recognized."
I thought of something for the first time. "You mean you don't really look like this?"
"Oh, not me," she said. She smiled innocently. "Everybody knows me."
 I wanted to believe her. "That makes it tougher to pin down Solomon. No name. No face. If we
assume he's American, male, and adult, we only have about fifty or sixty million people to choose from."
Suddenly I snapped my fingers and got up.
"What's the matter?"
"Idea!"
I breezed into the lobby and up to the desk. Charlie looked up respectfully, but his face fell into
more familiar lines as he recognized me.
"The fellow who told you how to put that notice on the board," I said. "Is he registered here?"
Charlie scowled at me. "Tricks?" he said.
"No tricks. Scout's honor."
"Penthouse," he said.
"How'd he register?"
Charlie pulled out a drawer and leafed through a block of cards. He flipped one out on the desk.
I looked at it hopefully. Then my hopes sank into the pit of my stomach. In bold black letters on the card
was printed the name "SOLOMON MAGUS."
He was bold and confident. He flaunted himself and his society in the face of the world, sure of
its blindness. But did his daring approach the foolhardy? Was he getting overbold, overconfident? It was
a key to his character. Maybe it would be the key to his downfall.
"You let him sign the register like that?" I asked.
Charlie shrugged, sorry now that he had let me talk him into a breach of confidence. "Why not?
He had a credit card with the same name."
"Thanks," I said, and went back to Ariel. "What was the meaning of that trap on the stairs?" I
asked. "Why did they do it?"
She put down her coffee cup. It had no lipstick stains on it; I liked that. "That was a warning, I
think." she said.
"To you or to me?"
"I'd thought it was to me," she said slowly. "But nowтАФ"
"Yeah," I said. "Be good or be dead."
"What are you going to do?" Ariel asked, her eyes fixed on me as if I were the most important
person in her life.
I had been wavering before. I liked to tell myself that I was another Philip Marlowe and trouble
was my business. I drew the line at magic and witchcraft. Not now. I wasn't really tough. I was just mad.
"I don't like warnings," I said.

Chapter 5
GLENDOWER: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR: Why, so can I, or so can any man;