"Eric Frank Russel - The Ultimate Invader" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

"H'm! Another theological nut," diagnosed the passer-by. "Don't waste your time
on him. Pass him along to the mental therapists." Giving the subject of the
conversation a cold look of reproof he continued on his way.
"You heard that?" The interviewer felt for the recorder-switch in readiness to
resume operation. "Now do we get on with this job in a reasonable and sensible
manner or must we resort to other, less pleasant methods of discovering the truth?"
"The way you put it implies that I am a liar," said Lawson, displaying no
resentment.
"Not exactly. Perhaps you are a deliberate but rather stupid liar whose
prevarications will gain him nothing. Perhaps you may have no more than a distorted
sense of humor. Or you may be completely sincere because completely deluded. We
have had visionaries here before. It takes all sorts to make a universe."
"Including Solarians," Lawson remarked.
"The Solarians are a myth," declared the interviewer with all the positiveness of
one stating a long-established fact.
"There are no myths. There are only gross distortions of half-remembered truths."
"So you still insist that you are a Solarian?"
"Certainly."
The other shoved the recorder aside, got up from his seat. "Then I can go no
further with you." He summoned several attendants, pointed to the victim. "Take him
to Kasine."
CHAPTER III
THE individual named Kasine suffered glandular maladjust-ment that made him
grossly obese. He was just one great big bag of fat relieved only by a pair of
deep-sunk but brilliantly glittering eyes.
Those optics looked at Lawson in much the same way that a cat stares at a
cornered mouse. Completing the inspection, heoperated his recorder, listened to a
play-back of what had taken place during the previous interview.
 Then a low, reverberating chuckle sounded in his huge belly and he commented,
"Ho-ho, a Solarian! And lacking a pair of arms at that! Did you mislay them
someplace?" Lean-ing forward with a manifest effort, he licked thick lips and added,
"What a dreadful fix you'll be in if you lose the others also! "
Lawson gave a disdainful snort. "For an alleged mental therapist you're long
overdue for treatment yourself."
It did not generate the fury that might well have been aroused in another. Kasine
merely wheezed with amusement and looked self-satisfied.
"So you think I'm sadistic, eh?"
"Only at the time you made that remark. Other moments: other motivations. "
"Ah!" grinned Kasine. "Whenever you open your mouth you tell me something
useful. "
"You could do with it," Lawson opined.
"And it seems to me," Kasine went on, refusing to be baited, "that you are not an
idiot."
"Should I be?"
"You should! Every Solarian is an imbecile. " He ruminated a moment, went on.
"The last one we had here was a many-tendriled octoped from Quamis. The
authorities on his home planet wanted him for causing an end-of-the-world panic.
His illusion of Solarianism was strong enough to make the credu-lous believe it. But
we aren 't foolish octopeds here. We cured him in the end."
"How? "