"Ian R. MacLeod - Nina" - читать интересную книгу автора (Macleod Ian R)

That evening, Max sat on the bed at the Corienne, exhausted. The guide book
for
the island said that there were native lads with donkeys to get you up to the
viewpoint from the carpark, which there had been, but they only took you half
the way. You had to walk -- climb -- the rest. Max sighed, remembering the way
Nina had scampered ahead. How the native lads had ogled her thighs.

Nina wandered out from her shower, her brown body gleaming. She was smiling,
singing to herself, some popular tune with words and a rhythm and that he was
too old to understand. Soon, it would be time to go out to the casino again.
Max
was already two thirds dressed, in his dark suit and trousers, his tie still
loose. Getting ready for anything, he needed a good half hour's head start on
Nina. He stared down at his shoes, wondering whether now was the propitious
moment to bend down and lace them.

Nina opened the windows on the balcony to the cooling air. Max could feel the
draft dragging at his skin, getting down into his bones. The sky outside was
lavender pink, lavender blue, delicately serrated with clouds. Remembering,
Max
took out his handkerchief, the sample. He was surprised to see that that too
had
changed color with the darkening evening. No longer blue. He could feel the
play
of bruised light on his eyes and face. Perhaps there was something in what the
little man had said after all -- he made a mental note to get it analyzed when
he got back to the mainland.

"What's that?" Nina leaned over close to him, pushing back wet strands of her
hair, droplets forming at the tips of her breasts, enclosing him in her soapy
scent.

"Just the thing I told you about earlier, sweet," Max said, resisting the
temptation to tuck it back away in the grit of his pocket like some guilty
secret. "The guy that came this morning, he said it was a scrap of the sky."

"That's impossible."

"That's what I told him."

"But it's neat, isn't it? Don't you think it would go well in my hair with the
silver gray dress I got down at Mario's?"

"Sure," Max said, although he hadn't the faintest idea what particular dress
she
meant. But it would look good. Everything looked good on Nina.

"Let me."