"Geoffrey A. Landis - Elemental (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Landis Geoffrey A)

use for one."
"It turns out that you can't actually make a love potion. Love isn't something
you can turn on and off." She sighed. "Unfortunately."
She looked up at him. "But sex, now . . . that's something simple, and
relatively well understood."
Ramsey laughed. "Well understood? It darn well ought to be, considering all
the time people spend thinking about it."
"Oh, Ramsey, you're impossible," she said. "Won't you let me keep any dignity
at all?"
Ramsey laughed: "Sorry," he said. He walked over and cradled her face in his
palms. Then he kissed her.
"That's more like it," she said.
2. Susan
When Layr came on shift he immediately felt something was wrong. The violet
glow from the transfer pentacle lit the room almost brighter than the
fluorescent lights, too bright to look at directly. He looked at the total
power indicator. One hundred eighty percent of nominal power. He'd never seen
it so high.
Carlo came in a moment later. "Something's wrong, sir," he said immediately.
Layr's opinion of the boy went up measurably. "1 know. Do you know the
shutdown procedure?"
"Of course."
The spaceport launch system perfectly exemplified the synthesis of the old
technology with the new. Antimatter power source held in check with
thaumaturgical wards; computer-generated spells regulating the fire elemental
that controls power flow to the bank of positronium lasers that boost the
shuttles; the whole complex located at a thaumaturgical nexus to enhance the
effectiveness. Simple enough in concept,
although rather complicated in the actual working details. What could be going
wrong?
"Drop her down to standby level."
Layr walked over to a control phone, picked it up, and pressed a button.
"This is power control. We've got a possible malfunction; we're going offline
until we can do some diagnostics. No, I don't know what it is yet or if it's
going to be serious. I can't say how long. Better cancel all lift-offs for
today. I'll call if it looks like there'll be any danger to the spaceport. So
far we're just being cautious. Right. Will do. With any luck, we'll be back on
line tomorrow morning. Hold tight. 'Bye."
He put down the phone and walked over to Carlo. "Well, my friend, it looks
like we've got a job to do today."
Much later, the sun was just beginning to peep into Ramsey's apartment when
Susan slipped out from under Ramsey's arm and began quietly to put on her
clothes.
"I'm sorry, my love," she whispered, kissing him lightly on the forehead. "I
wish we could have had more time. Adieu, mon amour, et au revoir."
When Ramsey awoke, she was long gone.
Three hundred miles off the coast of New Zealand, a small group of puzzled
geologists tried to determine why the cone of Manatla had recently and
unexpectedly gone dead. Manatla was the newest of a chain of tiny volcanic
islets on the edge of the Pacific ring of fire; it had sprouted out of the