"Tom Purdom-Moonchild" - читать интересную книгу автора (Purdom Tom)

"I should have known we'd run into one of them at a time like this," Ted said.
People could prowl around in the bushes near the fountains and the clearings, but the areas beside the
paths were off limits. Martin Luther King Garden was a life support system, not just a park-- and you
didn't let people tramp around inside a life support system just because they thought it might be fun. Dr.
Oliver would be in trouble even if the man from the Peace Watch never suspected he was trying to
sabotage the system.
Harvey's face reddened again. The peaceman's eyes slid across his face and Harvey turned back to
his brother and tried to look innocent. Every nerve in his back was tingling.
Should Ted ignore the peaceman and pretend he was talking? Should he say hello and give him a
wave? Did his father know the peaceman was there?
Ted looked tense, too. He turned his head toward the bushes and Harvey's fists clenched.
Branches brushed against the peaceman's clothes. "How's it going, men?"
"Fine," Harvey blurted.
"Seen any good-looking hits around today?"
Ted turned his head. The peaceman was rocking on the balls of his feet and smiling pleasantly.
My father's hiding in the bushes. He's planting a chemical that can wreck a life support system.
"There's a big bunch of them by the main fountain," Ted said.
Leaves rustled in the bushes. Ted jerked his head around.
A moth and two small birds leaped into the air. A big praying mantis hopped across a bush. The birds
landed on a branch on the other side of the path and the moth rose into the air with the dream-like, lazy
strokes of a creature flying in low lunar gravity.
He's probably got the container in his hands right now. You'll catch him red-handed.
The peaceman's eyes narrowed. He glanced at the two faces in front of him and Harvey's mind
blanked. They had talked about all the things they could do in different situations and now he couldn't
remember one thing they had said.
Ted smiled. "It sounds like there must be a bear running around in there."
"We've been having a real problem with bears around here lately."
"It's our father," Ted said. "He wanted to look at something in there."
"He's a bio-engineer," Harvey blurted. "He saw something interesting and dropped into the bushes
before we knew he was gone."
Leaves rustled near the hem of Harvey's robe. He stepped back and his father crawled out of the
bushes with all the care of a man who valued every leaf in the system. Dr. Oliver looked up at the
peaceman and then he stood up and brushed himself off.
The peaceman shook his head. Most peacemen were students who were working their way through
school, but he looked like he was the kind of man who would have been a policeman on Earth, too.
Dr. Oliver held up a pocket microscope. "I was just looking at some of the soil in there. I made some
improvements in the soil system here four years ago and I couldn't help taking a look at it on the spur of
the moment."
The peaceman's face clouded. "They're getting pretty strict about people going into the off-limits
zones. A lot of people are getting so self-confident nowadays they're beginning to forget we've got
reasons for those rules."
"I don't do it very often," Dr. Oliver said. "I could get a permit but I just yielded to impulse."
"May I see your ID please?"
Dr. Oliver colored. Harvey started to step back and then caught himself and stayed where he was.
Dr. Oliver reached inside his jacket and took out his wallet. He flipped it open and the peaceman
leaned over and studied it.
"Dr. Oliver! I thought I knew you from somewhere. I'm sorry! I was standing guard outside the council
room when you made that statement three months ago."
"The statement I made at the meeting about the Duvalis process? It wasn't a very effective statement,
I'm afraid."