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

"I'm not sure. I can see them, all right, but only when they're dressed up."

"Okay, okay," the brown man said patiently. "How do they look, dressed up?"

"Just like anybody, almost. They dress up inтАФin human skins. Oh, not real ones, imitations. Like the Katzenjammer
Kids zipped into crocodile suits. UndressedтАФI don't know. I've never seen one. Maybe they're invisible even to me,
then, or maybe they're just camouflaged. Ants or owls or rats or bats orтАФ"

"Or anything," the brown man said hastily.

"Thanks. Or anything, of course. But when they're-dressed up like humansтАФlike that one who was sitting next to you
awhile ago, when I told you not to lookтАФ"

"That one was invisible, I gather?"

"Most of the time they are, to everybody. But once in a while, for some reason, theyтАФ"
"Wait," the brown man objected. "Make sense, will you? They dress up in human skins and then sit around
invisible?"

"Only now and then. The human skins are perfectly good imitations. Nobody can tell the difference. It's that third eye
that gives them away. When they keep it closed, you'd never guess it was there. When they want to open it, they go
invisibleтАФlike

that. Fast. When I see somebody with a third eye, right in the middle of his forehead, I know he's a Martian and
invisible, and I pretend not to notice him."

"Uh-huh," the brown man said. "Then for all you know, I'm one of your visible Martians." /'

"Oh, I hope not!" Lyman regarded him anxiously. "Drunk as I am, I don't think so. I've been trailing you all day, making
sure. It's a risk I have to take, of course. They'll go to any lengthтАФany length at allтАФto make a man give himself away.
I realize that. I can't really trust anybody. But I had to find someone to talk to, and IтАФ" He paused. There was a brief
silence. "I could be wrong," Lyman said presently. "When the third eye's closed, I can't tell if it's there. Would you
mind opening your third eye for me?" He fixed a dim gaze on the brown man's forehead.

"Sorry," the reporter said. "Some other time. Besides, I don't know you. So you want me to splash this across the front
page, I gather? Why didn't you go to see the managing editor? My stories have to get past the desk and rewrite."

"I want to give my secret to the world," Lyman said stubbornly. "The question is, how far will I get? You'd expect
they'd have killed me the minute I opened my mouth to youтАФexcept that I didn't say anything while they were here. I
don't believe they take us very seriously, you know. This must have been going on since the dawn of history, and by
now they've had time to get careless. They let Fort go pretty far before they cracked down on him. But you notice they
were careful never to let Ford get hold of genuine proof that would convince people."

The brown man said something under his breath about a human interest story in a box. He asked, "What do the
Martians do, besides hang around bars all dressed up?"

"I'm still working on that," Lyman said. "It isn't easy to understand. They run the world, of course, but why?" He
wrinkled his brow and stared appealingly at the brown man. "Why?"

"If they do run it, they've got a lot to explain."