"Grant Naylor - Red Dwarf" - читать интересную книгу автора (Naylor Grant)

George McIntyre sat in the Salvador Dali Coffee Lounge of the Mimas Hilton,
and stared at a painting of melting clocks while he waited for the tall,
immaculately-dressed mechanoid to return with his double Bloody Mary, no ice.
He couldn't stand Bloody Mary without ice, but he didn't want his shaking hand
to set the cubes clanking around in the glass, advertising his nervousness
when his visitors arrived.
Five minutes later they did arrive, and McIntyre wished they hadn't. When he
turned and caught sight of them, the heat left his body as quickly as people
leave a Broadway first night party when the bad reviews come in.
There were three of them. Big men. They each had the kind of build that looks
stupid in a suit. Shoulders tiered from the neck. Thighs like rolls of carpet.
Biceps and triceps screaming to be released from the fetters of the finely-
tailored lounge suits. The kind of bodies that only look right and natural in
posing pouches. In suits, no matter how expensive - and these were expensive -
they looked like kids who'd been forced into their Sunday best, all starched
and itching. McIntyre couldn't shake the feeling that they were yearning,
aching to get nude and start oiling-up.
They didn't say 'hello' and sat down at his table. One of them took up both
spaces on the pink sofa, while the other two drew up chairs from a nearby
table and squeezed into them. The armrests were forced out into a tired Vee,
to the accompaniment of an uneasy creaking sound.
McIntyre just sat there, smiling. He felt as if he was sitting in the middle
of a huge barrel of sweating muscle. He was convinced that if he shook hands
with any of the three, he would immediately die from an overdose of steroid
poisoning.
He wondered, though not too hard, why one of them was carrying a pair of
industrial bolt clippers.
The tall, immaculately-dressed mechanoid came up and served McIntyre his
Bloody Mary. All three of the men ordered decaff coffee. While they waited for
it to arrive, they chatted with McIntyre. Small talk: difficulties parking;
the
decor; the irritating muzak.
When the coffee came, McIntyre pretended not to notice that they couldn't get
their fingers through the cup handles.
The man on the sofa lifted up a briefcase and fiddled clumsily with the lock.
For a moment McIntyre found himself feeling sorry for the man - everything was
too small for him: the briefcase, the coffee cup, the suit. Then he remembered
the bolt clippers, and stopped feeling sorry for the man and started feeling
sorry for himself again. The case eventually sprang open and the man took out
a fold-out, three-page document and handed it to McIntyre with a pen.
McIntyre explained, apologetically, that it was impossible for him to sign the
document.
The three men were upset.
George McIntyre left the Salvador Dali Coffee Lounge of the Mimas Hilton,
carrying his nose in a Mimas Hilton Coffee Lounge napkin.


THREE
The four astros paid the fare, leaving the smallest of small tips, and
staggered through the jabbering crowd and up the steps into the Los Americanos