"Damon Knight - Turncoat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Knight Damon)

all human joy, here and hereafter; an object of loathing and fear in this world, a sentient cinder in the
next?
 Bass shuddered.
The door behind the pulpit opened and Leggett stepped through. Bass stiffened his already rigid
spine.

SILENCE rippled back from the platform to the farthest corners of the room. Here, Bass knew, was
a ready-made opportunity for an impromptu ser-mon, one that nine out of ten Salesmen would have
seized. He felt a flush of re-luctant admiration, then, as Leggett simply stared down at the front row of the
crowd and said dryly, "Next!"
It was more effective than an hour's oratory. The incident had told its own story, pointed its own
moral; there was nothing more to be said.
And every customer in the room, un-willing to admit that he had waited not to buy but to hear a lurid
tale of hellfire, stood submissively till his turn came, then took without argument whatever Leggett chose
to give him.
The code numbers Bass punched were all in the first-quality group now; not a garment among them
that would not dis-integrate after the fifth wearing. Again and again, he had to announce that a be-mused
customer's credit card was sub-zeroed. By midafternoon he realized that Leggett was piling up a sales
total un-precedented in the history of the cloth-ing department.
At three o'clock, the hall still more than three-quarters filled, Leggett stopped in the middle of a sale
and said crisply, "Bass."
"Yes, Salesman Leggett."
To Bass's astonishment, Leggett turned his back, opened the door behind the pulpit and stepped
through. Bass followed.
Leggett was waiting in the corridor a pace beyond the doorway. Bass shut the door behind him.
"Bass," said the Salesman coldly, "you are ordered to report to the chambers of Personnel Manager
Wooten, in Block Eighteen, Level Thirty-five, at exactly three-twenty. It is now three o'clock. Be-fore
you go, since I probably shall not have a further opportunity, I wish to in-form you that your demeanor
and deportment today have been unspeakable. Five times, in the past hour alone, I have had to wait for
you to punch a code num-ber. You have slumped. You have shuf-fled your feet. You have scratched
your-self when you supposed that I could not see you."
Stunned, Bass opened his mouth.
"I do not wish to hear your excuses, Bass," said Leggett. "Attend me. If you still retain any ambition
to become a SalesmanтАФan office for which you are grossly unfittedтАФlet me advise you to remember
this: a Salesman is the direct representative of his Store's President, who in turn represents his District
Ex-ecutive, and so by an unbroken chain of authority to the Chairman himself, who is the direct
representative of the Infi-nite on this Earth. A Salesman is and must be the living symbol of rectitude, an
example for others to follow to the measure of their abilities. Not a callow, fidgeting jackanapes." He
turned abruptly. "Onward, Bass."
"Onward," croaked Bass automati-cally. He choked, and found his voice. тАЬSalesman LeggettтАФ"
Leggett stopped at the door. 'Well? Be quick."
"They're going to send someone to fill in for me, aren't they? I mean, Sales-man, if they don't, you'll
lose your rec-ord."
"That," said Leggett acidly, "is no concern of yours," and he showed Bass a rapidly diminishing strip
of his back through the closing door.
After a dazed moment Bass walked slowly down the corridor to the robing room. It was empty, the
long ranks of open closets dismally gaping. Unwilling-ly, Bass removed his stole and cap, fold-ed them
carefully and put them away. With equal deliberation he put on his surcoat, hat, pouch, wrist-bangles and
rings. Then he walked forlornly out of the room and down the long echoing corridor to the stair.
Two levels below, he crossed a ramp into the Block Nine concourse and boarded the northbound