"Christopher Priest - The Discharge" - читать интересную книгу автора (Priest Christopher)

rubbing acquisitively across her fingertips.

I shook my head, embarrassed and frightened.

"Money!" the woman said loudly.

"How much?"

I hoped that money would let me escape from them.

"Your leave pay." She rubbed her fingers again.

I found the thin fold of military banknotes the black-cap marshals had given me as I disembarked. As
soon as I pulled them from my hip pocket she snatched them. With a swift motion she passed the money
to one of the women I suddenly saw were sitting behind a long table in the shadowy recess by the edge
of the dance floor. Each of them was noting down the amounts taken from every man in a kind of ledger,
then slipping the banknotes out of sight.

It had all happened so quickly that I had barely taken in what they wanted. By now, though, because of
the close and suggestive way the women were standing against me, there was little doubt what they were
offering, even demanding. None of them was young, none of them was attractive to me. My thoughts for
the last few hours had been with Acizzone's sirens. To be confronted by these aggressive and
disagreeable women now was a shock to me.

"You want this?" one of them said, pulling at the loose front of her dress to reveal, fleetingly, a small
sagging breast.

"You want this too?" The woman who had taken my money from my hand snatched at the front of her
skirt, lifting it to show me what was beneath. In the harsh shadows created by the aggravating lights I
could see nothing of her.

They were laughing at me.

"You"ve taken my money," I said. "Now leave me."

"Do you know where you are and what men do in here?"

"Of course."

I managed to struggle away from them and headed back immediately towards the entrance. I was feeling
angry and humiliated. I had spent the last few hours dreaming of meeting, or even of simply seeing,
Acizzone's wanton beauties. Instead, these hags tormented me with their withered, experienced bodies.

A group of four black-caps had entered the building while this had been going on. I could see them
standing in pairs on each side of the entrance. They had withdrawn their synaptic batons and were
holding them in the strike position. While aboard the ship I had already seen what happened to the victim
if one of those evil sticks was used in anger. I faltered in my step, not wanting to have to push past the
men to leave.

As I did so, another whore forced her way through the crowd and took my arm. I glanced at her in a