"Herbert, Frank - The Eyes of Heisenberg" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

Schruille stared at him.
'You deduce this from the embryo's tape?' Calapine asked.
'Eh? Oh... no, of course not.'
Then what is it you've discovered?'
'Yes. Well... it seems rather obvious now that the operation Potter performed may be repeatable - given that general type of embryo and proper administration of sperm prota-mine.'
Schruille shuddered.
'Have you deduced the course of the operation?' Calapine asked.
'Not precisely, but in outline, yes.'
'Potter could repeat it?' she asked.
'Perhaps even Svengaard.'
'Guard and preserve us,' Calapine muttered. It was a ritual formula whose words seldom caught an Optiman's conscious attention, but she heard herself this time and the word 'preserve' stood out as though outlined in fire.
She whirled away.
'Where is Max?' Schruille asked.
The whine in Schruille's voice brought a sneer to Nourse's lips.
'Max is working,' Nourse said. He is busy.'
Schruille looked up at the watching scanners, thinking of all their fellows behind those lensed eyes - the Actionists seeing events as a new demand upon their talents, not realizing what violence might be unleashed here; the Emotionals, fearful and complaining, rendered almost ineffective by guilt feelings; the Cynics, interested by the new game (most of the watchers, Schruille felt, were Cynics); the Hedonists, angered by the current sense of urgent emergency, worried because such matters interfered with their enjoyments; and the Effetes, looking in all this for something new at which to sneer.
Will we now develop a new party? Schruille asked himself. Will we now have the Brutals, all sensitivity immured by the needs of self-preservation? Nourse and Calapine haven't faced this as yet.
Again, he shuddered.
'Max calls,' Calapine said. 'I have him in my transient screen.'
Schruille and Nourse flicked their channel duplicators, looked down at Allgood's swarthy, solid, muscular figure in the transient screen.
'I report,' Allgood said.
Calapine watched the Security chiefs face. He appeared oddly distracted, fearful.
'What of Potter?' Nourse asked.
Allgood blinked.
'Why does he delay his answer?' Schruille asked.
'It's because he worships us,' Calapine said.
'Worship is a product of fear,' Schruille said. 'Perhaps there's something he wishes to show us, a projection or an evidential sub-datum. Is that it. Max?'
Allgood stared out of the screen, looking from one to the other. They'd gotten tied up in that lost-time sense again, the endless word play and disregard for time in the quest for data, data, data - that side effect of endless life, the supra-involve-ment in trivia. This time, he hoped it would go on without end.
'Where is Potter?' Nourse demanded.
Allgood swallowed. 'Potter has... temporarily eluded us.' He knew better than to lie or evade now.
'Eluded?' Schruille asked.
'How?' Nourse asked.
There was... violence,' Allgood said.
'Show us this violence,' Schruille said.
'No,' Calapine said. 'I will take Max's word for it.'
'Do you doubt Max?' Nourse asked.
'No doubts,' Schruille said. 'But I will see this violence.'
'How can you?' Calapine asked.
'Leave if you wish,' Schruille said. He measured out his words: 'I... will... see... this... violence.' He looked at Allgood. 'Max?'
Allgood swallowed. This was a development he had not anticipated.
'It happened,' Nourse said. 'We know that, Schruille.'
'Of course it happened,' Schruille said. 'I saw the mark where it was edited out of our channels. Violence. Now, I wish to bypass the safety valve which protects our sensitivities.' He snorted. 'Sensitivities!'
Nourse stared at him, noting that all traces of a whine had gone from Schruille's voice.
Sehruille looked up at the scanners, saw that many were winking off. He was disgusting even the Cynics, no doubt. A few remained, though.
Will they stay through to the end? he wondered.
'Show the violence. Max,' Schruille ordered.
Allgood shrugged.
Nourse swiveled his throne around, putting his back to the screen, Calapine put her hands over her eyes.
'As you command,' Allgood said. His face vanished from the screen, was replaced by a high view looking down into a tiny square between windowless buildings. Two tiny figures walked around a fountain in the square. They stopped and a close-up showed the faces - Potter and an unknown, a strange-looking man with frighteningly cold eyes.
Again, the long view - two other men emerging from an alley carrying paper-wrapped packages. Behind them trooped a file of children with adult monitor in teacher's uniform.