"Will McCarthy - Bloom" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCarty Sarah)

"There he is, the Big Wheel himself!"

"Hi, guys," I said, ducking my head. My journalism hobby was well known, but it had never interfered
with work before, and the drama of its doing so yesterday was as appealing to them as it was to me.
More, probably, because they didn't have to go anywhere as a result.
Julf Ernst, my shift supervisor for the last five years, stepped away from his paste-and-stitch press, came
forward and pumped my hand, a solicitous grin stretching out beneath his bushy mustache. Strasheim the
visiting dignitary, yeah. "So what'd they say?" he asked.

"I, uh, need a leave of absence."

"Yeah? Where're they sending you?"

I snorted, amused to be able to shock him as deeply as I was about to. "Earth," I said.

He blinked.

"I need ten months, starting immediately. They have some kind of new ship."

He blinked again. "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

The machines had gone quiet, their operators all looking goggle-eyed at me.

Ernst pumped my hand again. "Jesus. Well done, then. I always knew you'd leave us one day. I always
said that, didn't I?"

"Sure," I agreed, although he never had.

He cocked his head, a gesture which managed somehow to point to everything at onceтАФlow ceiling, the
rusted floor, the reeking vats of glue and rubber, the guysтАж"You gonna leave all this?"

"Won't be easy," I assured him.

He nodded, approving of the remark. "One thing: you've got to have a drink with us after the shift. Down
at the Engel." The guys nodded. Yeah, yeah, mumble whatsis, drink at the Engel.

"I'd like that," I said. "What time should I meet you there?"

"Meet?" Ernst quirked his face up. "I thought we'd all walk down there together. You know, after the
shift."

I saw where that was heading, and moved to intercept. "I have to, ah, get my affairs in order. Close up
the house, that sort of thing. I report for training first thing in the morning."

Ernst's expression was long-suffering and tired. "We had a big spike of orders come in on Monday, you
know that. We're an hour and a half into a shift of twelve, for which you never called in late, and now I'm
supposed to press out eighty-nine units with only four guys? Don't do this to me, Johnny boy."