"George R. R. Martin - WC 4 - Aces Abroad" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

Hartmann is the only man aboard who seems entirely comfortable with all three
groups. He greeted me warmly at the press conference and sat with Howard and
myself for a few moments after boarding, talking earnestly about his hopes for
the trip. It is difficult not to like the senator. Jokertown has delivered him
huge majorities in each of his campaigns as far back as his term as mayor, and
no wonderno other politician has worked so long and hard to defend jokers'
rights. Hartmann gives me hope; he's living proof that there can indeed be trust
and mutual respect between joker and nat. He's a decent, honorable man, and in
these days when fanatics such as Leo Barnett are inflaming the old hatreds and


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prejudices, jokers need all the friends they can get in the halls of power.
Dr. Tachyon and Senator Hartmann co-chair the delegation. Tachyon arrived
dressed like a foreign correspondent from some film noir classic, in a trench
coat covered with belts, buttons, and epaulettes, a snap-brim fedora rakishly
tilted to one side. The fedora sports a foot-long red feather, however, and I
cannot begin to imagine where one goes to purchase a powder-blue crushed-velvet
trench coat. A pity that those foreign-correspondent films were all in black and
white.
Tachyon would like to think that he shares Hartmann's lack of prejudice toward
jokers, but that's not strictly true. He labors unceasingly in his clinic, and
one cannot doubt that he cares, and cares deeply ... many jokers think of him as
a saint, a hero ... yet, when one has known the doctor as long as I have, deeper
truths become apparent. On some unspoken level he thinks of his good works in
Jokertown as a penance. He does his best to hide it, but even after all these
years you can see the revulsion in his eyes. Dr. Tachyon and I are "friends," we
have known each other for decades now, and I believe with all my heart that he
sincerely cares for me ... but not for a second have I ever felt that he
considers me an equal, as Hartmann does. The senator treats me like a man, even
an important man, courting me as he might any political leader with votes to
deliver. To Dr. Tachyon, I will always be a joker.
Is that his tragedy, or mine?
Tachyon knows nothing of the cancer. A symptom that our friendship is as
diseased as my body? Perhaps. He has not been my personal physician for many
years now. My doctor is a joker, as are my accountant, my attorney, my broker,
and even my banker-the world has changed since the Chase dismissed me, and as
mayor of Jokertown I am obliged to practice my own personal brand of affirmative
action.
We have just been cleared for takeoff. The seat-hopping is over, people are
belting themselves in. It seems I carry Jokertown with me wherever I go-Howard
Mueller sits closest to me, his seat customized to accommodate his nine-foot
tall form and the immense length of his arms. He's better known as Troll, and he
works as chief of security at Tachyon's clinic, but I note that he does not sit
with Tachyon among the aces. The other three joker delegates-Father Squid,
Chrysalis, and the poet Dorian Wilde-are also here in the center section of
first class. Is it coincidence, prejudice, or shame that puts us here, in the
seats furthest from the windows? Being a joker makes one a tad paranoid about