"Frederik Pohl - The Midas Plague" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pohl Frederick)

finished a phone call. He mentally reviewed the possible
reasons why Wainwright would want to talk to him in
person instead of over the phone, or by dropping a word
to him as he passed through the drafting room.
Very few of them were good.
Wainwright put down the phone and Morey straight-
ened up. "You sent for me?" he asked.
Wainwright in a chubby world was aristocratically lean.
As General Superintendent of the Design & Development
Section of the Bradmoor Amusements Company, he
ranked high in the upper section of the well-to-do. He
rasped, "I certainly did. Fry, just what the hell do you
think you're up to now?"
"I don't know what you m-mean, Mr. Wainwright,"
Morey stammered, crossing off the list of possible reasons
for the interview all of the good ones.
Wainwright snorted. "I guess you don't. Not because
you weren't told, but because you don't want to know.
Think back a whole week. What did I have you on the
carpet for then?"
Morey said sickly, "My ration book. Look, Mr. Wain-
wright, I know I'm running a little bit behind, but"
"But nothing! How do you think it looks to the Com-
mittee, Fry? They got a complaint from the Ration Board
about you. Naturally they passed it on to me. And na-
turally I'm going to pass it right along to you. The ques-
tion is, what are you going to do about it? Good God,
man, look at these figurestextiles, fifty-one per cent;
food, sixty-seven per cent; amusements and entertain-
ment, thirty per cent! You haven't come up to your ration
in anything for months!"
Morey stared at the card miserably. "Wethat is, my
wife and Ijust had a long talk about that last night, Mr.
Wainwright. And, believe me, we're going to do better.
We're going to buckle right down and get to work and
uhdo better," he finished weakly.
Wainwright nodded, and for the first time there was a
note of sympathy in his voice. "Your wife. Judge Eton's
daughter, isn't she? Good family. I've met the Judge
many times." Then, gruffly, "Well, nevertheless, Fry, I'm
warning you. I don't care how you straighten this out, but
don't let the Committee mention this to me again."
"No, sir."
"All right. Finished with the schematics on the new
K-50?"
Morey brightened. "Just about, sir! I'm putting the
first section on tape today. I'm very pleased with it, Mr.
Wainwright, honestly I am. I've got more than eighteen
thousand moving parts in it now, and that's without"
"Good. Good." Wainwright glanced down at his desk.