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

away in sudden pain. There were four tiny indentations on the back. From one of them a tiny bead of
blood welled out as I watched. I looked at her silver fingernails and saw they were actually delicate and
pointed metal caps.
"IтАЩm dreadfully sorry," I heard her say, "but you frightened me. I thought for a moment you were going
to тАж "
At last she turned to me. Her coat had fallen open. Her evening dress was Cretan Revival, a bodice of
lace beneath and supporting the breasts without covering them.
"DonтАЩt be angry," she said, putting her arms around my neck. "You were wonderful this afternoon."
The soft gray velvet of her mask, molding itself to her cheek, pressed mine. Through the maskтАЩs lace the
wet warm tip of her tongue touched my chin.
"IтАЩm not angry," I said. "Just puzzled and anxious to help."
The cab stopped. To either side were black windows bordered by spears of broken glass. The sickly
purple light showed a few ragged figures slowly moving toward us.
The driver muttered, "ItтАЩs the turbine, man. WeтАЩre grounded." He sat there hunched and motionless.
"Wish it had happened somewhere else."
My companion whispered, "Five dollars is the usual amount."
She looked out so shudderingly at the congregating figures that I suppressed my indignation and did as
she suggested. The driver took the bill without a word. As he started up, he put his hand out the window
and I heard a few coins clink on the pavement.
My companion came back into my arms, but her mask faced the television screen, where the tall girl had
just pinned the convulsively kicking Little Zirk.
"IтАЩm so frightened," she breathed.

Heaven turned out to be an equally ruinous neighborhood, but it had a club with an awning and a huge
doorman uniformed like a spaceman, but in gaudy colors. In my sensuous daze I rather liked it all. We
stepped out of the cab just as a drunken old woman came down the sidewalk, her mask awry. A couple
ahead of us turned their heads from the half-revealed face as if from an ugly body at the beach. As we
followed them in I heard the doorman say, "Get along, Grandma, and cover yourself."
Inside, everything was dimness and blue glows. She had said we could talk here, but I didnтАЩt see how.
Besides the inevitable chorus of sneezes and coughs (they say America is fifty per cent allergic these


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 COMING ATTRACTION - Fritz Leiber


days), there was a band going full blast in the latest robop style, in which an electronic composing
machine selects an arbitrary sequence of tones into which the musicians weave their raucous little
individualities.
Most of the people were in booths. The band was behind the bar. On a small platform beside them a girl
was dancing, stripped to her mask. The little cluster of men at the shadowy far end of the bar werenтАЩt
looking at her.
We inspected the menu in gold script on the wall and pushed the buttons for breast of chicken, fried
shrimps and two Scotches. Moments later, the serving bell tinkled. I opened the gleaming panel and took
out our drinks.
The cluster of men at the bar filed off toward the door, but first they stared around the room. My
companion had just thrown back her coat. Their look lingered on our booth. I noticed that there were
three of them.
The band chased off the dancing girls with growls. I handed my companion a straw and we sipped our
drinks.