"Henry Kuttner - The Well of the Worlds UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

"Good. As for closing the mine, I don't think the Commissioner would allow it, so you needn't worry aboutЧ"

"He won't have any choice, if the uranium ore keeps

melting away," the girl interrupted. "After all, the government only manages die mines by courtesy these days. And AlperЧ" She paused, drew a long breath and met Sawyer's quiet gaze squarely.

"I'm afraid of him," she said. "He's a strange old man-half crazy, I think. He's up to something very odd. He's found something down in the mine. I should say he's found someoneЧ" She broke off, laughing helplessly. "It doesn't make sense. But film doesn't lie, does it? What I've got on film, photographed in the mine, would be evidence, wouldn't it? That's why I sent for you, Mr. Sawyer. I want to put a stop to this before Alper and I go stark raving crazy together. There's a woman down in Level EightЧor the shadow of a woman. Oh, I know how it sounds! But I can show you."

"The ghost?" Sawyer inquired. He was watching her alertly, keeping his mind open or trying to. This wasn't the time to believe or disbelieve anything.

"No. They look likeЧ" She hesitated, and then, oddly, said, "Wheat. They look like wheat."

"Wheat," Sawyer echoed thoughtfully. "I see." He paused. Then: "About this woman, thoughЧyou mean he meets one of the Fortuna women down in the mine?"

"Oh no. I know all the Fortuna women. Seasides, this isn't a real woman. You'll see what I mean in a minute. Alper's forbidden me to set foot in Level Eight, and the miners won't work there either; but he goes down and talks to thisЧ this shadow of a woman, and when he comes back heЧhe frightens me. I'm afraid to go out alone any more. I take two men with me whenever I check the cameras in Level Eight. It seems idiotic to be so afraid of an old man like Alper, when he even has to walk with a cane, butЧ"

"No," Sawyer said carefully. "You're quite right about William Alper. He could be dangerous. We have a pretty complete file on him. In the old days he'd never have been allowed near this mine, you know. Owner or not. Luckily there are enough uranium sources now to let the owners have their whims, up to a point. But Alper's still on our list of potentially dangerous people. Partly because he's a very wealthy man, partly because he's an expert technician, and

partly, you know, because of that peculiar obsession of his aboutЧrejuvenescence."

"I know." The girl nodded. "He's a strange man. I don't think he's ever failed at anything in his whole life. He's got an absolute conviction that he's the only man on earth who's always perfectly right about everything. He's determined the mine must close, and it drives him wild when I say no. Power's another obsession with him, Mr. Sawyer. He's imposed his will on so many people he must feel as basic as the law of gravity by now."

"He's getting old," Sawyer said. "He's getting panicky. Most people learn to compromise with age, but I doubt if Alper ever will."

"He isn't really as old as all that," Klai Ford said. "It's just that he's driven himself so hard all his life, as hard as he tries to drive others. Now he's beginning to pay for it and it makes him furious. I think he'd do anything in the world to get his youth back. HeЧhe seems to think there may be a chance of it, Mr. Sawyer. That womanЧthat shadowЧhe meets in the mine seems to be playing on his obsession. She could talk him into doing anything at all. And she seems to want to get rid of me."

Sawyer regarded her with a steady gaze. "This woman in the mine," he said, "leads me right into a personal question I've got to ask you, Miss Ford. A strange woman appearing from nowhere, right down there in the mine. Is that what you say is happening?"

All Klai Ford said was, "Oh, dear!" in a voice of misery. "I've been trying to place your accent," Sawyer went on with calm relentlessnsss. "Would you mind telling me, Miss Ford, what country you come from?"

She jumped up abruptly, leaving the little nest of furs which was her thrown-back coat and hood. She paced up and down the room twice, then whirled.

"You know perfectly welll" she said accusingly. "Don't make it harder!"

Sawyer smiled and shook his head.

"I know, but I never really believed it," he said. "Naturally the Commission ordered a full investigation when youЧ ahЧturned up here, butЧ"

"I don't know who I am!" the girl said angrily. "I don't know where I came from. Can I help it if I have a funny accent? I don't do it on purpose. How would you like to wake up with amnesia some morning and find yourself down in a uranium mine you'd never even heard of before, with no idea how you got there or who you were?" She hugged herself with both arms and shivered. "I hate it," she said. "But what can I do about it?"

"If you hadn't picked out a uranium mine to appear inЧ" Sawyer began.

"I didn't! It picked me!"

"Чwe wouldn't feel so baffled," Sawyer went on imper-turbably. "I wish we hadn't tried so hard to find some explanation about you. Then at least we could say, 'Maybe there's some answer.' But we still know nothing whatever. I was wondering if any sort of answer has ever occurred to you."

She shook her head. "All I remember is waking up on the wet floor in the mine. I knew my name. Just one nameЧKlai. Old Sam Ford found me and took care of me, and finally adopted me when nobody could figure out where I came from." Her voice softened. "Sam was so good, Mr. Sawyer. And so lonely. It was he who made the strike up here, you know, back in '53. Alper financed it, but he almost never came to Fortuna, until after Sam died."

"Surely, Miss Ford," Sawyer suggested, "you've connected your own appearance in the mine with the appearance of this strange new woman? From the same place as yourself, do you think? Another woman, like you, whoЧ"