"Robert A. Heinlein - Beyond This Horizon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
BEYOND THIS HORIZON

For
Cal
Mickey and
Both
J's

CHAPTER ONE
"All of them should have been very happy -- "
THEIR problems were solved: the poor they no longer had with them; the sick,
the lame, the halt, and the blind were historic memories; the ancient causes
of war no longer obtained; they had more freedom than Man has ever enjoyed.
All of them should have been happy --

Hamilton Felix let himself off at the thirteenth level of the Department of
Finance, mounted a slideway to the left, and stepped off the strip at a door
marked:
BUREAU OF ECONOMIC STATISTICS
Office of Analysis and Prediction
Director
PRIVATE
He punched the door with a code combination, and awaited face check. It came
promptly; the door dilated, and a voice inside said, "Come in, Felix."
He stepped inside, glanced at his host and remarked, "You make ninety-eight."
"Ninety-eight what?"
"Ninety-eight sourpusses in the last twenty minutes. It's a game. I just made
it up."
Monroe-Alpha Clifford looked baffled, an expression not uncommon in his
dealings with his friend Felix. "But what is the point? Surely you counted the
opposites, too?"
"Of course. Ninety-eight mugs who'd lost their last friends, seven who looked
happy. But," he added, "to make it seven I had to count one dog."
Monroe-Alpha gave Hamilton a quick look in an effort to determine whether or
not he was joking. But he could not be sure-he rarely could be sure.
Hamilton's remarks often did not appear serious, frequently even seemed
technically sense-free. Nor did they appear to follow the six principles of
humor-Monroe-Alpha prided himself on his sense of humor, had been known to
pontificate to his subordinates on the necessity of maintaining a sense of
humor. But Hamilton's mind seemed to follow some weird illogic of its own,
self consistent perhaps, but apparently unrelated to the existent world.
"But what is the purpose of your survey?" he asked.
"Does it need a purpose? I tell you, I just made it up."
"But your numbers are too few to be significant. You can't fair a curve with
so little data. Besides, your conditions are uncontrolled. Your results don't
mean anything."
Hamilton rolled his eyes up. "Elder Brother, hear me," he said softly. "Living
Spirit of Reason attend Thy servant. In Your greatest and most prosperous city
I find vinegar phizzes to grins in a ratio of fourteen to one-and he says it's