"Andrew J. Offutt - Spaceways 08 - Under Twin Suns" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

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With TGO, the ends justified the means, whatever the end result was, and whatever the means
necessary to reach it. The crude blinker-recorder had been a deliber-ate trick. Far better to make a
nervous witness even more nervous, then relax the poor bug by heroically removing the apparent source of
the nervousness. And recording every word and sound anyhow.
"Well, Inspector," Jahl said, almost leaning back, face loose, "that ship wasn't much to look at. Not at all.
 Not what you'd call a sleek spacer, yer know, or even a good-looking one. Not at all! A relic. A real
homely spaceship. An old ram-scoop, see, the kind of spacer they call the duck-billed plastipuss of the
spaceways. Been painted pretty recent, but that ship has took some hard knocks since then. Been bunged
up and neglected since then. I mean, a paint job of dull orange and pinkl What kind of colors is that for a
spacer, anyhow?"
The inspector had gone back to being Snake-eyes again. Might as well have been named Basilisk.
Proba-bly not, Jahl mused-but who knew what kind of names TGO people had? No one ever saw TGO
people. You just heard about TGO. The Gray Organization! Jahl didn't know anyone who'd ever seen one.
This one hadn't given a name, and a stevedore on space station Soljer wasn't about to ask!
That's the way this inspector looked and stared, though. Like that lizard on "Captain Starstrider," Jahl's
third-favorite non-interactive weekly holovision program. A basilisk, off some planet called Saiping. (But
the in-spector wasn't Saipese, either. Jahl had seen them. They were mostly sort of old-gold colored.)
Jahl cleared a dry throat, wishing for an everchil pak of pop.
"So the ship come in and was cleared. No sweat. I seen it on the scope. Onscreen. I was on break and
Farg let me up in the Security tower with him, so I could
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watch people come off all those ships that've been just all over. That ship come in and was cleared, and berthed.
Grappled in. Airlocks linked and sealed and navel tun-nel opened, into the station."
The inspector nodded encouragingly. Unwise to let this brainless Joser relax too much. But try to rush someone like
Jahl Ord and blow a good interview. / hope it's going to be a good interview. I could be doing something more
interesting- like picking wax out of my ears.
"Then, here come the first person off that ship. I stared. I had to stare! I just kept on staring-my pop even went flat!
She was black, Inspector, that first person out of the navel tunnel off that ship. Blacker'n your hair or mine. I mean her
skin shined purple under the station's overheads, I swear!"
Jahl paused to shake a black-locked head in recollec-tion while the inspector made another encouraging nod.
"But then there was her hair. Yaller! I swear! I mean yellow! Yellow as a as I mean real bright yaller, Inspec-tor. On
top of that shiny purple-black skin! Like-I mean black, Inspector!"
Basilisk-eyes nodded solemnly. Showed all the emo-tion of a packing crate.
"She came out of that navel tunnel and sort of sidled to her 1-her right. My left. She was wearing a black vest, just a
vest, arms bare except for a flashy bracelet, and a bright red halter. Just a band across her, uh, around her breasts.
They weren't, uh, tiny either, if yer know what I mean. Then she had on a pair of bright yellow pants. Those
low-waisted ones called tummy-teasers, fit tighter'n skin. Tight to the knees I mean tight, and wide at the bottoms.
And she wore a stopper. Low, on her right thigh. Way she was letting her eyes wander around, she looked like she
knew how to use it. Uh-just my impression, you understand."
"You say her eyes were wandering around? On feet, or sort of slithering? Or on stalks?"
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"Huh?"
The inspector sighed and shook that close-cropped head. "Never mind, Jahl. Sorry. She looked competent and her
gaze was shifting, conning the station. Looking for trouble. Watchful."
"That's what I said, right. Firm." Jahl nodded. Was there something wrong with saying that weird-looking woman's
eyes wandered? Hell, Farg's were popping out and wandering right between her legs, and he'd said so.
"Uh-since this is official, let's don't say she was looking for trouble. She was watching out for it, all right?" Jahl
waited for the inspector's nod, then: "Then came the next one. Another woman. Real short, this one, and real pale. I
mean pale. Her skin, her hair- almost white, I swear-even her eyes. Like water or something. Sort of blue gray."