"Frank Herbert - The Nothing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

the bay on the tractors. Usually, whenever I wanted to go someplace, I'd just ask, polite like,
was there a 'porter around and then I'd think of where I wanted to go and the 'porter would
set me down there quick as a wink.
Of course, I wound up in some old gent's apartment now and then. Some 'porters do that
sort of thing for a fee. But a pyro doesn't have to worry about would-be Casanovas. No old
gent is going to fool around when his clothes are on fire.
Well, the jet buggy finally set down on an old hospital grounds way back up in the sticks
and the cops took us to the main building and into a little office. Walking, mind you. It was
shady in the office-not enough lights-and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust after the
bright lights in the hall. When they did adjust and I saw the old codger behind the desk I did a
real double take. It was Mensor Williams. Yeah. The Big All. Anything anybody else can do he
can do better.
Somebody worked a switch somewhere and the lights brightened. 'Good evening, Miss
Carlysle,' he said and his little goatee bobbled.
Before I could make a crack about ethics against reading minds, he said, 'I'm not intruding
into your mental processes. I've merely scanned forward to a point where I learn your name.'
A prescient, too!
'There really wasn't any need to bring her,' he told the cops. 'But it was inevitable that you
would.' Then he did the funniest thing. He turned to Claude and nodded his head toward me.
'How do you like her, Claude?' he asked. Just like I was something offered for sale or
something!
Claude said, 'Is she the one, Dad?'
Dad! That one smacked me. The Big All has a kid and the kid's a Nothing!
'She's the one,' said Williams.
Claude kind of squared his shoulders and said, 'Well, I'm going to throw a stick into the
works. I won't do it!'
'Yes, you will,' said Williams.
This was all way over my head and I'd had about enough anyway. I said, 'Now wait a
minute, gentlemen, or I'll set the place on fire! I mean literally!'
'She can do it, too,' said Claude, grinning at his father.
'But she won't,' said Williams.
'Oh, won't I?' I said. 'Well, you just try and stop me!'
'No need to do that,' said Williams. 'I've seen what's going to happen.'
Just like that! These prescients give me the creeps. Sometimes I wonder if they don't give
themselves the creeps. Living for them must be like repeating a part you already know. Not for
me. I said, 'What would happen if I did something different from what you'd seen?'
Williams leaned forward with an interested look in his eyes. 'It's never happened,' he said.
'If it did happen once, that'd be a real precedent.'
I can't be sure, but looking at him there, I got the idea he'd really be interested to see
something happen different from his forecast. I thought of starting a little fire, maybe in the
papers on his desk. But somehow the idea didn't appeal to me. It wasn't that any presence
was in my mind telling me not to. I don't know exactly what it was. I just didn't want to do it.
I said, 'What's the meaning of all this double talk?'
The old man leaned back and I swear he seemed kind of disappointed. He said, 'It's just
that you and Claude are going to be married.'
I opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out Finally, I managed to stammer, 'You
mean you've looked into the future and seen us married? How many kids we're going to have
and everything like that?'
'Well, not everything,' he said. 'All things in the future aren't clear to us. Only certain
mainline developments. And we can't see too far into the future for most things. The past is