"Rudy Rucker - Master Of Space And Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

up the Softech corporate ladder this way, but so
what? All I needed from them was a steady
paycheck. Soon I'd find a way to get my engineer-
ing firm back on its feet. I gave Lacey a curt nod
and headed for the parking lot.

It was a hot day in late September. Buzzing
around the trash cans were hornets, drunk with a
summer's fatness. My car was the biggest on the
lotтАФI had a black and white 1956 Buick, black on
the bottom and white on top. Little Serena called it
Dada's saddle shoe. I'd bought it just before Fletcher
& Company went bankrupt, as a final present to
myself. The guy I'd bought it from had gotten it
off the original owner, a little old lady who only
drove it to church, no lie.

As I unlocked my big old bomb, I noticed some
things moving around in there. Bees? The biggest
one was perched right on top of the white plastic

steering wheel. But that was no bee. A wave of
strangeness swept over meтАФa thick, airless feeling
as if the world had suddenly turned into a giant
movie set.

Harry Gerber was sitting on my steering wheel.
He was two inches tall. A much smaller version of
him was perched on the gearshift as well. And the
tiny dots darting around on my dashboardтАФsome-
thing told me they were a flock of yet tinier Harrys.
All of them wore gray polyester suits, white shirts,
and no neckties. Oh, my. Who else but Harry?

Harry Gerber: the out-of-it genius who'd been
the inventor at Fletcher & Co. We'd had some
wild times together, Harry and me. But now
I hadn't seen him for over a year. He'd had a big
fight with my wife NancyтАФsomething about over-
population and world hungerтАФand after that we'd
drifted apart. He lived in New Brunswick, New
Jersey, and I lived twenty miles away, in Princeton.

The little figure on the steering wheel hailed me
with a cheerful wave of its tiny arm. "Hey, Fletch!
Pretty slick, huh?" He sounded like Mickey Mouse.

I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone
from Softech was watching. Buzzing hornets and
thick, sweet sun. I got in my car and closed the