"H. Beam Piper - The Edge of the Knife" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

"How about the Kilroy?"

Weill looked at him intently. "Ed, are you sure you did have that experience?" he asked. "I'm not trying to
imply that you're consciously lying to me about that. I am suggesting that you manufactured a memory of
that incident in your subconscious mind, and are deluding yourself into thinking that you knew about it in
advance. False memory is a fairly common thing, in cases like this. Even the little psychology I know, I've
heard about that. There's been talk about rockets to the Moon for years. You included something about
that in your future-history fantasy, and then, after the event, you convinced yourself that you'd known all
about it, including the impromptu christening of the rocket, all along."

A hot retort rose to his lips; he swallowed it hastily. Instead, he nodded amicably.

"That's a point worth thinking of. But right now, what I want to know is, will you represent me in case
Whitburn does take this to court and does try to void my contract?"

"Oh, yes; as you said, I have an obligation to defend the contracts I draw up. But you'll have to avoid
giving him any further reason for trying to void it. Don't make any more of these slips. Watch what you
say, in class or out of it. And above all, don't talk about this to anybody. Don't tell anybody that you can
foresee the future, or even talk about future probabilities. Your business is with the past; stick to it."




The afternoon passed quietly enough. Word of his defiance of Whitburn had gotten around among the
facultyтАФWhitburn might have his secretary scared witless in his office, but not gossipless outside
itтАФthough it hadn't seemed to have leaked down to the students yet. Handley, the Latin professor,
managed to waylay him in a hallway, a hallway Handley didn't normally use.

"The tenure-contract system under which we hold our positions here is one of our most valuable
safeguards," he said, after exchanging greetings. "It was only won after a struggle, in a time of public
animosity toward all intellectuals, and even now, our professional position would be most insecure
without it."

"Yes. I found that out today, if I hadn't known it when I took part in the struggle you speak of."

"It should not be jeopardized," Handley declared.

"You think I'm jeopardizing it?"

Handley frowned. He didn't like being pushed out of the safety of generalization into specific cases.

"Well, now that you make that point, yes. I do. If Doctor Whitburn tries to make an issue of ... of what
happened yesterday ... and if the court decides against you, you can see the position all of us will be in."

"What do you think I should have done? Given him my resignation when he demanded it? We have our
tenure-contracts, and the system was instituted to prevent just the sort of arbitrary action Whitburn tried
to take with me today. If he wants to go to court, he'll find that out."

"And if he wins, he'll establish a precedent that will threaten the security of every college and university