"Frederik Pohl - My Lady Green Sleeves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pohl Frederick)

My Lady Green Sleeves

His NAME WAS LIAM O' LEARY and there was something
stinking in his nostrils. It was the smell of trouble. He
hadn't found what the trouble was yet, but he would. That
was his business. He was a captain of guards in Estates-
General Correctional Institutionbetter known to its in-
mates as the Jugand if he hadn't been able to detect
the scent of trouble brewing a cellblock away he would
never have survived to reach his captaincy.
And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee
No. WFA-656R.
He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what
got a girl like her into a place like this. And, what was
more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now
that she was in.
He demanded, "Why wouldn't you mop out your cell?"
The girl lifted her head angrily and took a step forward.
The block guard, Sodaro, growled wamingly, "Watch it,
auntie!"
O'Leary shook his head. "Let her talk, Sodaro." It said
in the Civil Service Guide to Prison Administration: "De-
tainees will be permitted to speak in their own behalf in
disciplinary proceedings." And O'Leary was a man who
lived by the book.
She burst out, "I never got a chance! That old witch
Mathias never told me I was supposed to mop up. She
banged on the door and said, 'Slush up, sister!' And then
ten minutes later she called the guards and told them I
refused to mop."
The block guard guffawed. "Wipe talk! That's what she
was telling you to do. Cap'n, you know what's funny about
this? This Bradley is"
"Shut up, Sodaro." Captain O'Leary put down his
pencil and looked at the girl. She was attractive and young
not beyond hope, surely. Maybe she had got off to a
wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in
the disciplinary block help straighten her out? He nibbed
his ear and looked past her at the line of prisoners on the
rap detail, waiting for him to judge their cases. He said
patiently, "Bradley, the rules are you have to mop out
your cell. If you didn't understand what Mathias was
talking about you should have asked her. Now, I'm warn-
ing you, the next time"
"Hey, Cap'n, wait!" Sodaro was looking alarmed. "This
isn't a first offense. Look at the rap sheetyesterday she
pulled the same thing in the mess hall." He shook his
head reprovingly at the prisoner. "The block guard had
to breakup a fight between her and another wench, and