"Fritz Leiber - Damnation Morning" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

present moment, she knew all about everything.

So I thought for a bit, not long, and I answered, тАЬYes.тАЭ

She noddedтАФnot as if she approved my decision, or dis-approved it for that matter, but merely as if she
accepted it as a basis for negotiationsтАФand she let her bangs fall back across her forehead. Then she
gave me a quick dry smile and she said, тАЬIn that case you and I have got to get out of here and do some
talking.тАЭ

For me that smile was the first break in the shellтАФthe shell around my rancid consciousness or perhaps
the dark, star-pricked shell around the space-time continuum.

тАЬCome on,тАЭ she said. тАЬNo, just as you are. DonтАЩt stop for anything andтАФтАЬ (She caught the direction of
my im-mediate natural movement) тАЬтАФdonтАЩt look behind you if you meant that about wanting to live.тАЭ

Ordinarily being told not to look behind you is a re-markably silly piece of advice, it makes you think of
those тАЬpursuing fiendтАЭ horror stories that scare children, and you look around automaticallyтАФif only to
prove you*re no child. Also in this present case there was my very real and dreadful curiosity: I wanted
terribly (yes, terribly) to know whom it was I had just killedтАФa forgot-ten third wife? a stray woman? a
jealous husband or boy-friend? (though I seemed too cracked up for love affairs) the hotel clerk? a
fellow derelict?

But somehow, as with her тАЬwant to liveтАЭ question, I bad the sense to realize that this was one of those
times when the usually silly statement is dead serious, that she meant her warning quite literally.

If I looked behind me, I would die.

I looked straight ahead as I stepped past the scattered^ brown empty bottles and the thin fume mounting
from the tiny crater in the carpet where IтАЩd dropped a live cigarette.

As I followed her through the door I caught, from the window behind me, the distant note of a police
siren.

Before we reached the elevator the siren was nearer and it sounded as if the fire department had been
called out too.

I saw a silvery flicker ahead. There was a big mirror facing the elevators.

тАЬWhat I told you about not looking behind you goes for mirrors -too,тАЭ my conductress informed me.
тАЬUntil I tell you differently.тАЭ
 The instant she said that, I knew that I had forgotten what I looked like; I simply could not visualize that
dreadful witness (generally inhabiting a smeary bathroom mirror) of so many foggy mornings: my own
face. One glance in the mirror ...

But I told myself: realism. I saw a blur of brown shoes and black sandals in the big mirror, nothing more.

The cage of the right-hand elevator, dark and empty. was stopped at this floor. A crosswise wooden
bar held the door open. My conductress removed the bar and We stepped inside. The door closed and
she touched the controls. I wondered, тАЬWhich way will it go? Sideways?тАЭ