"Spider Robinson - The Free Lunch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

"Who? Oh, you mean the record holder."

"Yeah."

"He pissed me off."
From her the expression was startling. Then the meaning sank in.

"You ... I mean, you-"

"Got him kicked out," she agreed. "I locked a door behind him one day. He didn't belong here."

"Oh."

"Don't look so worried."

He started to relax. "I belong here, then?"

"I don't know yet," she said impersonally. "But we've been introduced. If I ever decide you don't belong, I'll tell
you first."

"Oh."

"Don't look so worried, I said. Damn it, boy, you've gotten farther than almost anyone else in the history of
Dreamworld: be content with that for now."

"Except for you," he couldn't help adding.

She looked amused. "I am the history of Dreamworld."

"Have you ever-" He hesitated. "Do you ever go ... you know, out?"

"Never. And I don't plan to." There was flat finality in her voice. She got up and brought the empty bowl to the
small sink at one end of the room, rinsed it, and set it aside to dry. "More soup here," she said, pointing at the
microwave. "Fridge there, pantry there, dunny over there behind that door. If you want anything, help
yourself: I'm going to bed." She came back to the bedside, and - to his astonishment - dropped her robe,
climbed in beside him, and slid under the covers. "Don't bother trying to explore; I've locked us in."

Mike rummaged through his entire social experience in search of an appropriate comment to make to an adult
female stranger who has just joined one in bed, and came up empty. By the time he came up with "Good
night" as a default choice, he was talking to himself.

CHAPTER 3

SOAKING
Rather to his surprise, he was asleep nearly at once.

AND THEN, EVEN more quickly, he was awake again. Wide awake, instantly aware of who and where he
was, motionless in bed, reaching out with all his senses for whatever it was that had wakened him. He
couldn't identify it. But neither could he escape the conviction that something was . . . well, not wrong exactly,
Annie was sleeping soundly beside him, so probably nothing could be seriously wrong. But something was