"Henry Kuttner - Don't Look Now" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

"Why won't your life be safe?"
"Because of the Martians, you fool. They own the world."

The brown man sighed. "Then they own my newspaper, too,*' he objected, "so I can't print anything they don't like."

"I never thought of that," Lyman said, considering the bottom of his glass, where two ice cubes had fused into a cold,
immutable union. "They're not omnipotent, though. I'm sure they're vulnerable, or why have they always kept under
cover? They're afraid of being found out. If the world had convincing evidenceтАФlook, people always believe what
they read in the newspapers. Couldn't youтАФ"

"Ha," said the brown man with deep significance.

Lyman drummed sadly on the bar and murmured, "There must be some way. Perhaps if I had another drink. . . ."

The brown-suited man tasted his collins, which seemed to stimulate him. "Just what is all this about Martians?" he
asked Lyman. "Suppose you start at the beginning and tell me again. Or can't you remember?"

"Of course I can remember. I've got practically total recall. It's something new. Very new. I never could do it before. I
can even remember my last conversation with the Martians." Lyman favored the brown man with a glance of triumph.

"When was that?"

"This morning."

"I can even remember conversations I had last week," the brown man said mildly. "So what?"

"You don't understand. They make us forget, you see. They tell us what to do and we forget about the
conversationтАФit's post-hypnotic suggestion, I expectтАФbut we follow their orders just the same. There's the
compulsion, though we think we're

making our own decisions. Oh, they own the world, all right, but nobody knows it except me."

"And how did you find Out?"

"Well, I got my brain scrambled, in a way. I've been fooling around with supersonic detergents, trying to work out
something marketable, you know. The gadget went wrongтАФfrom some standpoints. High-frequency waves, it was.
They went through and through me. Should have been inaudible, but I could hear them, or ratherтАФwell, actually 1
could see them. That's what ( mean about my brain being scrambled. And after that, I could see and hear the Martians.
They've geared themselves so they work efficiently on ordinary brains, and mine isn't ordinary anymore. They can't
hypnotize me, either. They can command me, but I needn't obeyтАФnow. I hope they don't suspect. Maybe they do.
Yes, I guess they do."

"How can you tell?"

"The way they look at me."

"How do they look at you?" asked the brown man, as he began to reach for a pencil and then changed his mind. He
took a drink instead. "Well? What are they like?"