"A. E. Van Vogt - The Players of Null-A" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

As he sat up, he came further out of sleep, and abruptly remembered that this was the day the President Hardie was
scheduled to leave for Venus. The thought galvanized him. The fighting had reduced travel between the two planets to
a once-a-week basis, and he still had the problem of obtaining permission to get aboard today. He bent down and
clicked on the receiver but, because he was still in his pajamas, left the video plate blank.
'Gosseyn speaking,' he said.
'Mr. Gosseyn,' said a man's voice, 'this is the Institute of Emigration.'
Gosseyn stiffened. He'd known this was going to be the day of decision, and there was a tone to the voice on the
phone that he didn't like.
'Who's talking?' he asked sharply.
'Janasen.'
'Oh!' Gosseyn scowled. This was the man who had put so many obstacles in his way, who had insisted upon his
producing a birth certificate and other documents and had refused to recognize a favorable lie detector test. Janasen was
a minor official, a rank which was surprising in view of his almost pathological refusal to do anything on his own
initiative. He was no person to talk to on the day that a ship was due to leave for Venus.
Gosseyn reached down and clicked on the video plate. He waited till the image of the other's sharp face was clear,
then: 'Look, Janasen, I want to talk to Yorke.'
'I have received my instructions from Mr. Yorke.' Janasen was imperturbable. His face looked strangely sleek in
spite of its thinness.
'Put me through to Yorke,' said Gosseyn.
Janasen ignored the interruption. 'It has been decided,' he said, 'that in view of the troubled situation on Venus. . . .'
'Get off the line!' Gosseyn said in a dangerous voice. I'll talk to Yorke, and to no one else.'
'. . . that in view of the unsettled situation on Venus, your application for entrance is refused,' said Janasen.
Gosseyn was furious. For fourteen days he had been held off by this individual, and now, on the morning of the
departure of the ship, here was the decision.
'This refusal,' said the unfazable Janasen, 'will in no way debar you from making your application again when the
situation on Venus has been clarified by directives from the Venusian Council for Immigration.'
Gosseyn said: Tell Yorke I'll be along to see him right after breakfast.'
 His fingers flipped the switch, and broke the connection.
Gosseyn dressed swiftly, and then paused for a final survey of himself in the full length mirror of the hotel room. He
was a tall, stern-faced young man of thirty-five or so. His vision was too sharp for him not to notice the unusual
qualities of that image. At a casual glance, he looked quite normal, but to his own eyes his head was clearly too large
for his body. Only the massiveness of his shoulder, arm and chest muscles made his head even tolerable in proportion.
As it was he could think of it falling within the category of 'leonine'. He put on his hat, and now he looked like a big
man with a strongly muscled face, which was satisfactory. As much as possible he wished to remain inconspicuous.
The extra brain, which made his head nearly a sixth larger than that of an ordinary human being, had its limitations. In
the two weeks that had passed since the death of the mighty Thorson, he'd been free for the first time to test its terrific
powers--and the results had sharply modified his earlier feeling of invincibility.
A few minutes over twenty-six hours was the maximum time during which his 'memorized' version of a section of
floor was valid. No change might be visible in the floor, but somehow it altered, and he could no longer retreat to it in
the instantaneous 'similarity' fashion.
That meant he must, literally, rebuild his defenses every morning and evening in overlapping series, so that he'd
never be caught without a few key points to which he could escape in an emergency. There were several puzzling
aspects to the time limits involved. But that was something to investigate when he got to Venus.
As he stepped into the elevator a moment later, he glanced at his watch. 9:27.
One minute later, at 9:28, the time for which the accident was scheduled, the elevator crashed to destruction at the
bottom of its shaft.
 II
NULL-ABSTRACTS

General Semantics enables the individual to make the following adjustments to life: (1) He can logically anticipate