"Theodore Sturgeon - Ether Breather" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore)

Just what happened after that I couldn't tell you. I went haywire. I guess. I scattered tw
hundred and twenty dollars' worth of television set over all three rooms of my apartment. Ne
thing I knew I was in a 'press tube, hurtling toward the three-hundred-story skyscraper that house
Associated Televi-sion. Never have I seen one of those 'press cars, forced by compressed a
through tubes under the city, move so slowly, but it might have been my imagination. If I h
anything to do with it, there was going to be one dead script boss up there.
And who should I run into on the 229th floor but old Ber-belot himself. The perfume king h
blood in his eye. Through the haze of anger that surrounded me, I began to realize that things we
about to be very tough on Griff. And I was quite ready to help out all I could.
Berbelot saw me at the same instant, and seemed to read my thought. "Come on," he sa
briefly, and together we ran the gantlet of secretaries and assistants and burst into Griff's office.
Griff rose to his feet and tried to look dignified, with little success. I leaped over his glass de
and pulled the wings of his stylish open-necked collar together until he began squeak-ing.
Berbelot seemed to be enjoying it. "Don't kill him, Hamil-ton," he said after a bit. "I want to."
I let the script man go. He sank down to the floor, gasping. He was like a scared kid, in mo
ways than one. It was funny.
We let him get his breath. He climbed to his feet, sat down at his desk, and reached out towa
a battery of push buttons. Berbelot snatched up a Dow-metal paper knife and hacked viciously
the chubby hand. It retreated.
"Might I ask," said Griff heavily, "the reason for this un-provoked rowdiness?"
Berbelot cocked an eye at me. "Might he?"
"He might tell us what this monkey business is all about," I said.
Griff cleared his throat painfully. "I told both you . . . er ... gentlemen over the phone that,
far as I know, there was nothing amiss in our interpretation of your play, Mr. Hamilton, nor in t
commercial section of the broadcast, Mr. Berbelot. After your protests over the wire, I made it
point to see the second half of the broadcast myself. Nothing was wrong. And as this is the fir
commercial color broadcast, it has been recorded. If you are not satisfied with my statemen
you are welcome to see the recording yourselves, immediately."
What else could we want? It occurred to both of us that Griff was really up a tree; that he w
telling the truth as far as he knew it, and that he thought we were both screwy. I began to think
myself.
Berbelot said, "Griff, didn't you hear that dialogue near the end, when those two kids were b
that sea wall?"
Griff nodded.
"Think back now," Berbelot went on. "What did the boy say to the girl when he put his muzz
into her hair?"
" `I love you,' " said Griff self-consciously, and blushed. "He said it twice."
 Berbelot and I looked at each other. "Let's see that recording," I said.
Well, we did, in Grills luxurious private projection room. I hope I never have to live through
hour like that again. If it weren't for the fact that Berbelot was seeing the same thing I saw, an
feeling the same way about it, I'd have reported to an alienist. Because that program came o
Griffis projector positively shimmering with innocuousness. My script was A-1; Berbelot's plu
were right. On that plug that had started everything, where the man and the girl were gabbing in t
theater lobby, the dialogue went like this:
"And how do you like the play, Mr. Robinson?"
"Utterly charming . . . and that goes for you, too, my dear. What is that perfume you a
using?"
"Berbelot's Doux Reves. What do you think of it?"
"You heard what I said about the play. "