"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 29 - Angado" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

eyes meshed by lines. The visage of a living machine devoid of
the capacity of emotion. A flesh and blood robot who could only
know the pleasure of mental achievement.

Behind him the site of the circus fell away. The barren
ground, the litter, the crusted lagoon. The pool in which the dead
had been buried and, with them, the ending of a dream.

At night Baatz became a world of gaiety with bright lanterns
illuminating the tiered buildings and the market itself turned
into a playground. Here the venders, traders, merchants and
entrepreneurs put aside business and joined with stallholders,
farmers, shopkeepers, housewives, workers and the restless tide
of transients that made up the population.
 A time of drinking and dancing and merriment but one free of
violence. The air saw to that, the invisible spores it carried from
the vegetation clothing the surrounding hills. Exudations which
calmed and reduced tension so that men laughed instead of
quarreling and sought peaceful solutions instead of bloody
settlements.

Like a scarlet ghost Avro moved through the town.

Cardor could have accomplished the task, as could others of
his own acolytes, but he needed to do it himself. The woman who
answered his knock frowned as she saw his face, became
respectful as she recognized his robe. Even on Baatz the Cyclan
was known.

"My lord!" Her head dipped in a bow. "This is an honor. How
may I serve you?"

"A man stayed here." Avro's tone was the even modulation of
his kind, devoid of all irritating factors. "Dumarest. Earl
Dumarest. I have the correct address?"

"You have, my lord. He hired a room upstairs. In the back."
She blinked sorrowful eyes. "Such a pity he died."

"You heard?"

"From the circus. They told me to sell his things and to let the
room if anyone wanted it. Not that he'd used it much."

"Let me see it."

It was a box containing a narrow bed, a cabinet, a small table,
two chairs. A rug half-covered the bare wood of the floor. A jug
held scummed water and a bowl had a chipped rim. Avro
assessed this at a glance then he was at the cabinet, searching,