"Continuing Time - 01 - Emerald Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moran Daniel Keys)

damned hours ahead of time?Ф
Amnier found himself caught in the challenge of her gaze. Without thought he
found his posture straightening. With perfect honesty he replied, УMademoiselle,
only when I wish for the person with whom I am meeting to be ill at ease.Ф He
shook his head. УIn this instance, I regret the use of the techniqueЧand have
for the last half hour.Ф
Suzanne Montignet looked him over briefly, and smiled rather wearily. She held
out her hand. УI have,Ф she said softly, Уbeen looking forward to meeting you,
Mister Amnier.Ф He took her hand, and was not surprised at the strength in her
grip. УAs has Colonel Kalharri.Ф

Someday I shall tell you of the life of Jorge Rodriguez; it is the least one can
do for a man one has killed.
It is the truth that I killed Jorge Rodriguez.

Like all truths it is susceptible to interpretation. I had taken all the
precautions available to me that my visit to this time might not cause more
damage than good; but it is never possible to know all of what may come from any
course of action. This is as true of a God of the Zaradin Church as it is of any
other sentient.
Jorge Rodriguez entered the small room with two doors only moments after his
fellow technicians had left through the other. The doors were so designed that
they could not both be open at the same time. I waited patiently as the man came
through the door leading to the laboratories proper. There was time for me,
despite the poor quality of ultraviolet light, to puzzle out his name badge,
which was mounted on a piece of dark plastic with a strip of a clear film upon
it. He entered as the door had just barely opened, and then stood in the
doorway, preventing my passage, as the door slid shut again. It should not have
been a problem; he would continue through the next door, and I would open the
door to the laboratories after he was gone. It would appear to those inside as
if the door had slid aside of its own accord; unusual, but given the relatively
primitive stage of their technology, it would not be so strange as to cause
excitement in and of itself.
A glitch, they would call it.
But Jorge Rodriguez did not leave immediately As long minutes fled by on my
personal time scale, Rodriguez slumped back against the door to the laboratories
With excruciating slowness he reached inside his coat and withdrew a small
cylinder, which he placed within his mouth. As far away as the small room would
allow me to get, I paced slowly back and forth to prevent my image from
flickering into an instant of appearance. It must have raised ever so faint a
breeze.
Rodriguez puffed on the cylinder, his back to the door through which I
desperately needed to pass. It was likely tobacco or marijuana, two preeminent
inhalants of the period. I could not recall how long a typical cylinder of
either inhalant should have taken to be consumed, but it was soon apparent that
whatever the period was would be far longer than I had available.

I came down into Time.

It was instantaneous for me; for Rodriguez I appeared as a frozen statue for