"Henry Kuttner - Clash by Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

celoflex gown.
'You seem pretty human after all, captain,' she said. 'I heard what you told Norman.'
Scott shrugged. 'I did that for his own good - and the good of the Company. One man off the beam
can cause plenty trouble, Mistress Kane.'
'I envy Norman,' she said. 'It must be a fascinating life you lead. I'd like it - for a while. Not
for long. I'm one of the useless offshoots of this civilization, not much good for anything. So
I've perfected one talent.'
'What's that?'
'Oh, hedonism, I suppose you'd call it. I enjoy myself. It's not often too boring. But I'm a bit
bored now. I'd like to talk to you, captain.'
'Well. I'm listening,' Scott said.
Ilene Kane made a small grimace. 'Wrong semantic term. I'd like to get inside of you
psychologically. But painlessly. Dinner and dancing. Can do?'
'There's no time,' Scott told her. 'We may get our orders any moment.' He wasn't sure he wanted to
go out with this girl of the Keeps, though there was definitely a subtle fascination for him, an
appeal he could not analyse. She typified the most pleasurable part of a world he did not know.
The other facets of that world could not impinge on him; geopolitics or nonmilitary science held
no appeal, were too alien. But all worlds touch at one point - pleasure. Scott could understand
the relaxations of the undersea groups, as he could not understand or feel sympathy for their work
or their social impulses.
Cine Rhys came through the door-curtain, his eyes narrowed. 'I've some telaudioing to do,
captain,' he said. Scott knew what implications the words held: the incipient bargain with Cine
Mendez. He nodded.
'Yes, sir. Shall I report to headquarters?'
Rhys' harsh face seemed to relax suddenly as he looked from Ilene to Scott. 'You're free till
dawn. I won't need you till then, but report to me at 6 a.m. No doubt you've a few details to
clean up.'
'Very well, sir.' Scott watched Rhys go out. The cine had meant Jeana, of course. But Ilene did
not know that.
'So?' she asked. 'Do I get a turn-down? You might buy me a drink, anyway.'
There was plenty of time. Scott said, 'It'll be a pleasure,' and Ilene linked her arm with his.
They took the dropper to ground-level.
As they came out on one of the ways, Ilene turned her head and caught Scott's glance. 'I forgot
something, captain. You may have a previous engagement. I didn't realize-'
'There's nothing,' he said. 'Nothing important.'
It was true; he felt a mild gratitude toward Jeana at the realization. His relationship with her
was the peculiar one rendered advisable by his career. Free-marriage was the word for it; Jeana
was neither his wife nor his mistress, but something midway between. The Free Companions had no
firmly grounded foundation for social life; in the Keeps they were visitors, and in their coastal
forts they were - well, soldiers. One would no more bring a woman to a fort than aboard a ship of
the line. So the women of the Free Companions lived in the Keeps, moving from one to another as
their men did; and because of the ever-present shadow of death, ties were purposely left loose.
Jeana and Scott had been free-married for five years now. Neither made demands on the other. No
one expected fidelity of a Free Companion. Soldiers lived under such iron disciplines that when
they were released, during the brief peacetimes, the pendulum often swung far in the opposite
direction.
To Scott, Ilene Kane was a key that might unlock the doors of the Keep - doors that opened to a
world of which he was not a part, and which he could not quite understand.
II
I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made.