"Dragon Army" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

"Easy, Bulkley, or you'll run out of adjectives. And I get tired of hearing you
repeat yourself. You know that you don't watch what you please. You watch what
the censors let you. And they'd never permit the girl to strip off the last
veil."
Bulkley was still cursing, more to himself now than at the other man. Newell
stared at him, his own excitement more easily controlled now that he saw what a
fool his companion looked like when he was unreasonably excited. And yet,
Bulkley was no fool. He was a shrewd, dangerous enemy, and a false and
treacherous friend. Physically, he was enormously impressive. Tall,
wide-shouldered, with powerful muscles that had been hardened in his work as
engineer on numerous planets, he seemed to dwarf even Newell. He was older than
Newell, andЧyes, Newell had to admit itЧshrewder. Bulkley had been around, he
knew how things were done. Newell was a good biochem man, with a special
affinity for plants. He could almost sense how a plant felt as it grewЧand that
seemed absurd, because a plant has no feelings. But Bulkley could sense how
people felt.
He had control, too, a control and a will as strong, when he wanted to use them,
as Newell's own. His hot rage was disappearing now, and as it disappeared, a
cold and ugly look formed in his eyes. A cold look in the eyes, a cold smile on
the hard face. He said evenly, "One of these days, Newell, I'm going to kill you
for pulling a little trick like that."
"Kill me? You should thank me, Bulkley. All you're building up for yourself by
watching programs of that sort is frustration. You haven't a chance in the
worldЧany worldЧof seeing a girl like her in the flesh for a long time. Why
tantalize yourself? It only makes your blood pressure worse. And there are no
doctors on this planet to treat it."
"You're so kind and thoughtful of my health, Newell, I don't know how to thank
you. But I'm going to kill you anyway. I'm warning you now."
"You won't kill me yet, though. We're the only two people on this planet. You
need me too much."
"One of these days you might make me forget that I need you."

NEWELL stood up slowly. "I won't tell you my opinion of you, Bulkley," he said.
"I'll leave it to you to guess. But I don't want you to think I'm afraid of you.
If there were such a thing as a space-devil, I wouldn't be afraid of that
either, not if I hated it as much as I hate you. And another thing I don't want
you to imagine is that you've fooled me. Because you haven't, not worth a damn.
I know why I'm on this planet. It's because you framed me and had me put here."
"You're having hallucinations, Newell."
"I don't think so. I've been having thoughts. We've been here for about six
months nowЧand I've had time to figure out why I was convicted."
"The why is simple enough. You were caught." There was a contemptuous sneer on
the bigger man's face. "They had the evidence against you, just as they had
against me. Only the big shot who arranged everything got away."
"The big shot? There was no big shot. It was you who ran everything, you who
manufactured the evidence. It's no use trying to laugh that off, Bulkley,
because I know the truth. Millions of credits were disappearing, and you were
the one responsible for making them disappear. When they got wise to you, you
tried to shift the blame to me. That didn't workЧnot quite, anyway. You couldn't
get out of the net of evidence yourself, although you were able to involve me."