"Sea Change, With Monsters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

The two monks left Indira with her luggage pod in the middle of the big, empty space. There were marks on the concrete floor that suggested that it had once been partitioned into many small rooms. A gutted air compressor sat in one corner. She sat down on the pod and tried to call Carr, but her phone wasnТt getting any signal. It was so cold that the smoke of each breath crystallized into a floating frost with a tiny tinkling sound, too cold to sit still and wait.
She began to prowl around. The empty room took up half the dome; a corridor looped around the other half, with little rooms opening off on either side. None showed any sign of recent habitation. There were two service tunnels. One led downward, curving out of sight; she had just opened the door of the other, its ribbed wall rimed with ice and stopped with a locked hatch, when the older of the two monks found her. It seemed that Brother Rothar, the abbot of the monastery, would talk with her.
The old monkТs name was Halga. Indira asked him about the other tunnel as they walked down, and he said that it led to the old mine structure, which had sunk into the ice after it had been abandoned during the war.
УWe cut a tunnel to it to see what we could salvage. Now we use it for storage.Ф
УI didnТt mean to pry. I was just looking around and wondering where I should stow my gear.Ф
УI think you should talk with Brother Rothar,Ф the old monk said.
УIs there a problem?Ф
УBrother Rothar will explain.Ф
The tunnel wound down a long way. Indira realized that the monastery was like a pin piercing the iceЧa pin a kilometer long, with the dome at its head and a winding series of chambers and passages built around its shaft. Brother Halga explained that the whole structure had been synthesized from glass and silicates extracted from the brecciated ice and bound together by diamond wire. Indira wondered how often they had to adjust the shaft because of stress in the icy crust, and Brother Halga told her that the Monastery was built on a breccia intrusion that went almost all the way down to the ocean.
УThe surface is covered with ice, but a hundred meters below the surface it is quite stable.Ф
The old monk had a mild, diffident manner. He did not look at her when he spoke.
She said, УI donТt mean to make you uncomfortable by asking all these questions.Ф
УWe are not used to people like you. To women, I mean.Ф His brown face, framed by the black cowl, darkened. He was blushing.
They walked on in silence, and at last took a side corridor whose walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in thick red fur. The air was at blood heat. Double doors at the end were covered in some kind of hide, dyed the same red as the fur. Brother Halga opened them, ushered her in, and announced her to the man who stood at the far end of the dimly lit room.
УBrother Rothar,Ф the old monk whispered, and stepped backward and pulled the double doors shut behind him.
On one side of the room, shelves holding printed books stepped up into darkness. On the other, a stone wall was muffled by an ancient tapestry: an enlarged reproduction of a section of the ceiling of the VaticanТs Sistine Chapel, God reaching out from the clouds to a casually reclining Adam. At the far end of the room, a man was standing in front of a huge fireplace, watching a bank of holos that floated in the darkness to one side. The fireplace was as big as an emergency shelter and held an actual, real fire. The flames crackled and danced above a bed of whitehot pressed carbon chunks and sent little licks of aromatic smoke curling over the monumental lintel, and firelight beat over the Persian carpets that layered the floor.
Indira had been told that the monastery was wealthy, but she had not realized how wealthy.
УWelcome,Ф the man said. His voice was subtly amplified. It boomed and rolled, mellow as good whisky, around the corners of the sumptuous room.
He was an old man, thin and straightbacked; with a shrewd, hawkish face. His dusty white skin was marked with dark blotches. He wore the same black robes as the monks, but instead of a cowl, his bald pate was covered with a black skullcap on which molecular shapes were embroidered in gold wire. Heavy gold rings extended the lobes of his large, papery ears.
УI have arranged for some food,Ф he said.
He crossed to the side of the fireplace, tracked by a spotlight that came on somewhere high above, and pulled a Florentine chair from a little burred walnut table. A plastic tray of food was set on the table: a sloppy puree of some kind of green leaf; a slab of gelatin seamed with chunks of uncooked vegetable; dry salty biscuits. A plastic beaker held pure water.
Rothar watched Indira push the puree around and said, УThe same food is served in our refectory. We are an ascetic order.Ф
He gestured, and one of the holos floating to the side of the fireplace inflated. It showed a view looking down on a refectory in which about a hundred blackrobed monks sat in rows, ten by ten, along white plastic tables.
She said, УI ate at Cadmus, and then on the bus. This isnТt quiteЧФ
УWhat you expected? No. It is not what I expected, either. And there is the problem.Ф
The holo shrank back into the array. Others showed views of a weed farm that seemed to stretch forever. Indira realized that Rothar was showing off. This room; his army of monks; the vast farm.
Rothar said, УI have been trying to talk with Vlad Simonov about thisЕproblem. But he is nowhere on the net.Ф
He was rubbing his hands over each other. She noticed that when he thought she wasnТt looking at him, he made little grabby glances at her body. She wished that she had worn something over the skintight suit liner.
She said, УVlad is working at a mine on the antijovian hemisphere. HeТs probably under the ice. What is this problem? When do I start to work? Perhaps I can see the echo traces, and any video you have.Ф
When Rothar looked at her for a moment, she added, УOf the monster. The monster IТve come to kill.Ф
УAh. Now. IТm afraid that there has been a misunderstanding.Ф
УA misunderstanding? You have reported a Dragon Class biowar macroform in your area. You made a contract with Vlad Simonov, and Vlad sent me.
УThere is the misunderstanding. You see, we did not expect him to send us a woman.Ф
УOne of VladТs little jokes.Ф
УA very embarrassing joke for both of us, Ms. Dzurisin.Ф
УThatТs between you and him. Meanwhile, I have a job to do.Ф
УIТm afraid not, Ms. Dzurisin. I am revoking your contract.Ф
Indira sat back in the chair and stared at Rothar, who still would not meet her gaze. It came out slowly. Rothar did not want her to hunt the dragon. The monastery was forbidden to women. The bus would return in three days; she would leave then.
УMeanwhile, we cannot work our farm,Ф Rothar said. УIt will cost us a great deal of money. We are very angry with Mr. Simonov.Ф
He did not seem angry; he had not raised or varied his voice at any time during the interview. He added, УI have arranged for accommodation. Breakfast will be brought to you tomorrow. Expect it at six oТclock.Ф
УYou really do want me out of here.Ф
УWe are a contemplative order. We rise early. By the time you receive your breakfast, we will have already celebrated our first service. We will serve you at the same time that we eat.Ф
She said, УI need to tell my family about the change of plan, but my phone isnТt working.Ф
УSomething to do with the structure, I understand.Ф
УThen perhaps I could plug into your net. Or are you cut off here?Ф
УI suppose that you could go outside,Ф Rothar said. A pause. He added, УYou will be quite safe here. We have been freed of the normal Satanic lust that blinds men. Not by chemical or physical castration. Both are unreliable and have unsatisfactory sideeffects. And, of course, chemical castration would involve use of those very hormones that taint you and your kind. No. We have all submitted to nanosurgery that has isolated the neurons that control the lordotic response. We are incapable of being tempted because we are incapable of arousal.Ф
Indira stared at him. УI see,Ф she said, although she did not understand why he had told her this. Unless it was another form of boasting. At last she said, УI still want my fee.Ф
УOf course. We would not dream of reneging on the contract. Goodbye, Ms. Dzurisin.Ф
Rothar made no signal, but at the far end of the room, Brother Halga opened the big double doors.