"A. E. Van Vogt - Asylum" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

and not at all, Leigh thought, as if they were sleeping.
He caught himself making a mental note of that fact-and felt abruptly shocked.
The first murders on the North American continent in twenty-seven years. And
it was only another job. By Heaven, he was tougher than he'd ever believed.
He grew aware that the voices had stopped completely. The only sound was the
hoarse breathing of the man nearest him-and then the scrape of his own shoes
as he went forward.
His movement acted like a signal on that tense group of men. There was a
general pressing forward. Leigh had a moment of hard anxiety; and then his
bigger, harder muscles brought him where he wanted to be, opposite the two
heads.
He leaned forward in dark absorption. His fingers probed gingerly the neck of
the woman, where the incisions showed. He did not look up at the attendant, as
he said softly:
"This is where the blood was drained?"
"Yes."
Before he could speak again, another reporter interjected: "Any special
comment from the police scientists? The murders are more than a day old now.
There ought to be something new."


Leigh scarcely heard. The woman's body, electrically warmed for embalming,
felt eerily lifelike to his touch. It was only after a long moment that he
noticed her lips were badly, almost brutally bruised.
His gaze flicked to the man; and there were the same neck cuts, the same torn
lips. He looked up, questions quivered on his tongue- and remained unspoken as
realization came that the calm-voiced attendant was still talking. The man was
saying:
"-normally, when the electric embalmers are applied, there is resistance from
the static electricity of the body. Curiously, that resistance was not present
in either body."
Somebody said: "Just what does that mean?"
"This static force is actually a form of life force, which usually trickles
out of a corpse over a period of a month. We know of no way to hasten the
process, but the bruises on the lips show distinct burns, which are
suggestive."
There was a craning of necks, a crowding forward; and Leigh allowed himself to
be pushed aside. He stopped attentively, as the attendant said: "Presumably, a
pervert could have kissed with such violence."
"I thought," Leigh called distinctly, "there were no more perverts since
Professor Ungarn persuaded the government to institute his ~rahd of mechanical
psychology in all schools, thus ending murder, theft, war and all unsocial
perversions."
The attendant in his black frock coat hesitated; then: "A very bad one seems
to have been missed."
He finished: "That's all, gentlemen. No clues, no promise of an early capture,
and only this final fact: We've wirelessed Professor Ungarn and, by great good
fortune, we caught him on his way to Earth from his meteorite retreat near
Jupiter. He'll be landing shortly after dark, in a few hours now."