"Andre Norton - Jern Murdock 02 - Uncharted Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

Off-port before nightfall. Daytimevisitors, save for tourists herded along
on a carefully supervised route,were very noticeable there. Thus I would
have to hole up somewhere. Anotherhotel was the best answer. With what I
thought a gift of inspiration I choseone directly across from the Seven
Planets, from where I had just made myunusual exit. This was several steps
down from the Seven Planets in class,which suited my reduced means. And I
was especially pleased that instead ofa human desk clerk, who would have
added to the prestige, there was arobo--though I knew that my person was
now recorded in the files from itsscanners. Whether the confusing tactics on
my behalf via Eet's efforts wouldhold here I did not know. I accepted the
thumb lock plate with its incisednumber, took the grav to the cheapest
second-floor corridor, found my room,inserted the lock, and once inside,
relaxed. They could force that door nowonly with super lasers. Depositing Eet
on the bed, I went to the wall mirrorto see what he had done to me. What I
did sight was not a new face, but ablurring, and I felt a disinclination to
look long at my reflection. Towatch with any concentration was
upsetting, as if I found my presentappearance so distasteful that I could
not bear to study it.I sat down on the chair near the mirror. And as I
continued to force myselfto look at that reflection I was aware
that the odd feeling ofdisorientation was fading, that in the glass my
own features were becomingclearer, sharper, visible and ordinary as they had
always been.That Eet could work such a transformation again when the time came
to leavehere, I doubted. Such a strain might be too much, especially when it
wasimperative that his esper talents be fully alert. So I might well walk
outstraight into the sight of those hunting me. But--could I reproduce
Eet'seffect by my own powers? My trial with Faskel's features had certainly
notbeen any success. And I had had to call upon Eet's help to achieve
eventhat. But suppose I did not try for so radical a disguise? Eet had
suppliedme this time, not with a new face, but with merely an overcast of some
weirdkind which had made me difficult to look at. Suppose one did not try
tochange a whole face, but only a portion of it? My mind fastened upon
thatidea, played with it. Eet did not comment, as I thought he might. I
lookedto the bed. By all outward appearances he was asleep.If one did not
subtract from a face but added to it-- in such a startlingfashion that
the addition claimed the attention, thus overshadowingfeatures. There
had been a time in the immediate past when my skin waspiebald, due to
Eet's counterfeiting of a plague stigma. I could rememberonly too well
those loathsome purple patches. No return to those! I had nowish to be
considered again a plague victim. However, a scar--My mind wandered to the
days when my father had kept the hock-lock shop atthe space port on my home
planet. Many spacers had sought out his inner roomto sell finds into whose
origin it was best not to inquire too closely. Andmore than one of those had
been scarred or marked unpleasantly.A scar--yes. Now where--and what? A
healed knife gash, a laser burn, an oddseam set by some unknown wounding? I
decided on a laser burn which I hadseen and which should fit in well with
the Off-port. With it as clear in mymind as I could picture it, I stared into
the mirror, striving to pucker anddiscolor the skin along the left side of my
jaw and cheek.Chapter ThreeIt was an exercise against all the logic of my
species. Had I not seen itsucceed with Eet, seen my partial change under his
aid, I would not havebelieved it possible. Whether I could do it without Eet's