"Rob Swigart - AKA" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swigart Rob)

his head. He rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily.
"My name is Hubble. I'm a special investigator for the Department. We are trying to track
down Avery Augenblaue, who, it seems, is missing. As you know, the tenth annual AKA
convention starts tomorrow, and if Avery doesn't show up there are liable to be riots. If he does
show up, for that matter, there are liable to be, uh, disturbances. So we must locate him.
Considering the edgy and divisive state of the country at this time, the President feels that
national security is involved. You understand."
"Yes. I'm familiar with national security," said Ambrose. "But I'm afraid I can't help you. I
haven't seen Mr. Augenblaue since he brought the Monastic back from intergalactic space."
"I see," said Hubble. He sat straight in his chair, his strangely undersized porkpie hat
squarely in his lap. "Perhaps you could recall for me the last time you saw him? That may
provide some clue to his whereabouts."
"Certainly," said Dr. Merkin, showing his large teeth, behind which clicked the dwindling
remains of a lemon-flavored throat lozenge. "He returned, as I'm sure you're aware, two months
ago Friday, in the late afternoon. We were expecting him since the ship had been programmed
for reentry on that day, though because of the lapse of ten years we couldn't be precise about the
time. The Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction equations, as developed from Einstein's Special
Relativity Theory, in which motion is contracted by a factor of тИЪ1-v2/c2, showed some anomaly
in time relative to motion that could not be entirely worked out beforehand by computer, though
as it happened we were remarkably accurate. You could refer to my paper, 'Some Lorentz-
Fitzgerald Anomalies in the Augenblaue Intergalactic Flight: The Orgone Side Effect,' which
was published last year in the Astrophysical Journal. It predicted a deviation of 1.9 x 10-12
nanoseconds, which, as I indicated, was remarkably accurate."
"Yes, yes, Dr. Merkin. But my question concerned Mr. Augenblaue. It is irnperative that we
find him before the AKA Club convention starts."
"Sorry. Where was I?" Ambrose stroked his muttonchops and sucked at the last of the
lemon lozenge. "Yes. The return. Well, Mr. Augenblaue landed at the Augenblaue AeroSpace
complex out at Kankakee at 4:47:32 P.M. It was truly lousy weather, I remember.
Unseasonably cold and windy for June, with a kind of bitter cold rain. Wind out of the
northwest at twenty-five gusting to forty. Knots, that is. Four-tenths of an inch of precipitation,
mostly as rain or smail hailstones. Really vicious weather."
"I'm sure everyone in the world remembers that day and what the weather was like. It was
the day he returned from out there, the day he arrived with the truth about The Blue Light.
There's no doubt that everyone remembers that it was raining in Kankakee." Hubble seemed to
be a bit enraptured with his memory, but he brought himself up short.
 "But what we're investigating, Dr. Merkin, is what occurred after Mr. Augenblaue landed.
Please continue. Time is getting short."
"Right. Sorry, again." Ambrose leaned back in his chair and sighed. He glanced out his
office window in the Augenblaue AeroSpace Research Facility building in suburban Evanston,
Illinois. His window afforded him a view across Lake Shore Drive of Lake Michigan. "It
certainly is a hot day," he remarked at last. "Not at all like the day Avery returned."
Hubble had no time to waste looking out the window. Besides, he already knew that the sun
was shining, that it was hot and humid, and that the lake simmered like broth. "Please, Dr.
Merkin."
"Uh, well. Avery opened the hatch of his ship and stepped out. He was wearing, let me get
this right, not his pearl gray jumpsuit, the one he left in, but a regular business suit. Yes, I
remember distinctly, it was a yellow and brown broad check suit, ten years out of date, of
course - very narrow lapels - and an orange silk choker. He looked very handsome at the hatch
of the Monastic, enabling us to snap lovely publicity photos. Just a second. I have a few here."
Dr. Merkin leaped from his chair and rummaged in a file cabinet behind his desk.