"James P. Hogan - Leapfrog" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

off in all directions, with figures floating between the various spaces
and levels like fish drifting through a three-dimensional undersea
labyrinth. Despite the map included in the information package,
Halloran was hopelessly lost within minutes and had to ask directions
three times to the elevator that would take him to the south terminal
of Red Square. To reach it, he passed through a spin-decoupling gate,
which took him into the slowly turning hub structure of the rotating
section.
The elevator capsule ran along the outside of one of the
structural supporting booms and was glass-walled on two sides. A
panorama of the entire structure of MARSMOS changed perspective outside
as the capsule moved outward, with the full disk of Mars sweeping by
beyond, against its background of stars. It was his first close-up view
of the planet that was real, seen directly with his own eyes, and not
an electronically generated reproduction.
As the capsule descended outward and Halloran felt his body
acquiring weight once again, he replayed in his mind the voice he had
heard over the phone: the guttural, heavily accented tone, the hearty,
wheezing joviality, the tortured English. It had sounded like the
Vusilov, all right. Perhaps he had upset somebody higher up in the
heap, Halloran thoughtтАФwhich Vusilov had had a tendency to do from time
to timeтАФand despite all the other changes, the old Russian
penchant for sending troublemakers to faraway places hadnтАЩt gone away.
Direction had reestablished itself when he emerged at the rim.
Halloran consulted his map again and found the Diplomatic Lounge
located two levels farther down, in a complex of dining areas and
social rooms collectively lumped together in a prize piece of
technocratese as a тАЬCommunal Facilities Zone.тАЭ But as he made his way
down, austere painted metal walls and pressed aluminum floors gave way
to patterned designs and carpeting, with mural decorations to add to
the decor, and even some ornaments and potted plants. Finally he went
through double doors into a vestibule with closets and hanging space,
where he left his bags, and entered a spacious, comfortably furnished
room with bookshelves and a bar tended by a white-jacketed steward on
one side. On the other, vast windows looked out into space, showing
Phobos as a lumpy, deformed crescent. Leather armchairs and couches
were grouped around low tables with people scattered around, some
talking, others alone, reading. The atmosphere was calm and restful,
all very comfortable and far better than anything Halloran had
expected.
And then one of the figures rose and advanced with a hand
extended. He was short and stocky, with broad, solid shoulders, and
dressed casually in a loose orange sweater and tan slacks. As he
approached, a toothy grin broadened to split the familiar craggy,
heavyjowled face, with its bulbous, purple-veined noseтАФa face that had
always made Halloran think of an old-time prizefighterтАФfrom one
misshapen, cauliflower ear to the other.
Vusilov chuckled delightedly at the expression on HalloranтАЩs
face. тАЬAh-hah! But why the so-surprised look, Edmund Halloran? You
think you could get rid of me so easy, surely not? It has been some