"Arkady & Boris Strugatsky - The Ugly Swans" - читать интересную книгу автора (Strugatski Arkady)

"This is deadly, gentlemen," said Victor. "I'm taking off."
Nobody paid attention to him. He pushed the table aside and stood up. Feeling very drunk, he moved
toward the bar. The bald barman was wiping bottles. He looked at Victor without curiosity.
The Ugly Swans 27

"The usual?" he said.
"Wait," said Victor. "What did I want to ask you . . . Oh, yes. How's it going, Teddy?"
"It's raining," said Teddy shortly and poured him some hun-dred-and-fifty-proof.
"Lousy weather we're having," said Victor and leaned against the bar. "What does your barometer say?"
Teddy stuck a hand under the bar and got out his weather-whiz. The three pins were pressed tightly
against the shin-ing, almost lacquered handle.
"No clearing," said Teddy, studying the weatherwhiz. "The devil's own invention." He thought for a
minute and added: "But who knows, it might have broken a long time ago. How many years has it been
raining?"
"Take a trip to the Sahara," proposed Victor.
Teddy smirked. "It's funny," he said. "This friend of yours, Pavor, a funny business, offered me two
hundred crowns for this hunk of wood."
"He was probably drunk," said Victor. "What does he need it for?"
"That's what I told him." Teddy turned the weatherwhiz in his hands and held it up to his right eye. "I
won't give it away," he declared. "Let him get one for himself." He shoved the weatherwhiz under the bar,
looked at Victor playing with his glass, and added, "That Diana of yours stopped by."
"A long time ago?" asked Victor carelessly.
"Around five. I gave her a case of cognac. Rosheper is on a binge, he can't stop. He's sending his whole
staff out for cognac. The filthy bastard. A member of parliament. Aren't you worried about her?"
Victor shrugged. He suddenly saw Diana standing next to him. She took shape next to the bar in a wet
slicker with the hood pulled down. She wasn't looking in his direction. He saw only her profile, and he
thought that of all the women he had ever known, she was the most beautiful and that in all likelihood he
would never have another one like her. She was
28 The Ugly Swans

leaning against the table, her face was terribly pale and terribly indifferent, and she was the most
beautifulтАФeverything about her was beautiful. And always. When she cried, when she laughed, when she
got mad, and when she didn't give a damn, and when she was freezing cold, and especially when she was
in one of her moods. "God am I drunk," thought Victor, "I probably reek of liquor, like Quadriga." He stuck
out his lower lip and exhaled. "Can't tell."
"The roads are wet and slippery," Teddy was saying. "It's foggy . . . and then, you know this Rosheper is
a real wom-anizer, a dirty old man."
"Rosheper is impotent," objected Victor, mechanically swal-lowing his hundred-and-fifty-proof.
"Did she tell you that?"
"Drop it, Teddy," said Victor. "Forget it."
Teddy stared at him for a moment and sighed. Grunting, he squatted down, rummaged around under the
bar, and came up with a bottle of liquid ammonia and an opened packet of tea. Victor glanced at the clock,
then started watching Teddy slowlv get out a clean glass, fill it with club soda, add a few drops of ammonia,
and in the same deliberate manner stir the mixture with a swizzle stick. Teddy pushed the glass toward
Victor. Victor drank it and made a face, holding his breath. The repulsivelv fresh stream of ammonia
exploded in his brain and spread somewhere behind his eyes. Victor drew in a slow breath of air that had
become unbearably cold, and stuck his fingers into the packet of tea.
"All right, Teddy," he said. "Thanks. Charge everything to my account. They'll tell you how much. I'm
going."
Concentrating on chewing the tea leaves, he returned to his table. The young man in glasses and his