"Fritz Leiber - Coming Attraction" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

sometimes they come a little too close."
I explained that if I hadnтАЩt yanked her out of the way sheтАЩd have been hit by more than hooks. But he
interrupted. "If sheтАЩd thought it was a real murder attempt, sheтАЩd have stayed here."
I looked around. It was true. She was gone.
"She was fearfully frightened," I told him.
"Who wouldnтАЩt be? Those kids would have scared old Stalin himself."
"I mean frightened of more than тАШkids.тАЩ They didnтАЩt look like kids."
"What did they look like?"
I tried without much success to describe the three faces. A vague impression of viciousness and
effeminacy doesnтАЩt mean much.
"Well, I could be wrong," he said finally. "Do you know the girl? Where she lives?"
"No," I half lied.
The other policeman hung up his radiophone and ambled toward us, kicking at the tendrils of dissipating
smoke. The black cloud no longer hid the dingy fa├зades with their five-year-old radiation flash burns,
and I could begin to make out the distant stump of the Empire State Building, thrusting up out of Inferno
like a mangled finger.
"They havenтАЩt been picked up so far," the approaching policeman grumbled. "Left smoke for five

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 COMING ATTRACTION - Fritz Leiber


blocks, from what Ryan says."
The first policeman shook his head. "ThatтАЩs bad," he observed solemnly.
I was feeling a bit uneasy and ashamed. An Englishman shouldnтАЩt lie, at least not on impulse.
"They sound like nasty customers," the first policeman continued in the same grim tone. "WeтАЩll need
witnesses. Looks as if you may have to stay in New York longer than you expect."
I got the point. I said, "I forgot to show you all my papers," and handed him a few others, making sure
there was a five-dollar bill in among them.
When he handed them back a bit later, his voice was no longer ominous. My feelings of guilt vanished.
To cement our relationship, I chatted with the two of them about their job.
"I suppose the masks give you some trouble," I observed. "Over in England weтАЩve been reading about
your new crop of masked female bandits."
"Those things get exaggerated," the first policeman assured me. "ItтАЩs the men masking as women that
really mix us up. But, brother, when we nab them, we jump on them with both feet."
"And you get so you can spot women almost as well as if they had naked faces," the second policeman
volunteered. "You know, hands and all that."
"Especially all that," the first agreed with a chuckle. "Say, is it true that some girls donтАЩt mask over in
England?"
"A number of them have picked up the fashion," I told him. "Only a few, thoughтАФthe ones who always
adopt the latest style, however extreme."
"TheyтАЩre usually masked in the British newscasts."
"I imagine itтАЩs arranged that way out of deference to American taste," I confessed. "Actually, not very
many do mask."
The second policeman considered that. "Girls going down the Street bare from the neck up." It was not
clear whether he viewed the prospect with relish or moral distaste. Likely both.
"A few members keep trying to persuade Parliament to enact a law forbidding all masking," I continued,
talking perhaps a bit too much.
The second policeman shook his head. "What an idea. You know, masks are a pretty good thing, brother.
Couple of years more and IтАЩm going to make my wife wear hers around the house."