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

She shuddered at the extent of that danger, then shrugged defiantly and thought,At worst I could
always do something.

She wasn't exactly sure what.

She went below decks finally and put on her bathing suit, and presently she was paddling around in the
warm, gently pulsing sea. The swimming was euthanasia, of course тАФ another day gone the way of a
hundred like it, each like a little pebble dropped into the ocean of time, sunk without a trace.

She looked back over that avenue of sun-brightened days, individually delightful, collectively disturbing
since she was wasting away her life.

And she was, for then th time, about to make some worthy resolve about her future, when she grew
aware that over on the fancy sailing yacht moored a hundred feet away, Sylvia Haskins had come on
deck and was beckoning to her.

Dutifully, Marie swam over and climbed wetly and reluctantly aboard. She detested Henry Haskins,
Sylvia's husband, so she was relieved when Sylvia said, 'Henry has gone to a meeting in connection with
a big medical discovery, and we're going out to some island near here to have a look at something or
somebody on whom it's been successfully used.'

Marie said, 'Oh!'

Her picture of Henry Haskins probably differed from his wife's. A cold-blooded bedroom athlete тАФ as
described by himself тАФ Henry had several times tried to corner Marie. He had desisted only when
confronted with the pointed edge of a knife presented and manipulated with a firmness that convinced
him that here was one 'crow' he was not going to get.

Henry called women crows, and they pretended that this was a cute way he had of being different.
Compared with her husband, Sylvia was mild, friendly, ineffectual, good-hearted тАФ traits made much of
by Henry. 'Silly is such a good-hearted crow,' he would say in a fond tone.

To Marie, the possibility that someone had found a method of prolonging Henry's life was a shuddery
idea. But what interested her was the information that he was at a meeting. It seemed instantly certain тАФ
in a town the size of Santa Yuile тАФ that it was the same meeting her father had gone to. She said so.

Sylvia exclaimed, 'Maybe then it isn't goodbye. I believe Mr Peddy and old Grayson and the Heintzes
and Jimmy Butt and at least two or three others are in on it.'

And old Reicher,thought Marie.Oh, my God!

'Here comes your father now!' said Sylvia..

Captain Lederle saw where she was and stopped. He looked up at the women, rubbing his hands and
exuding enthusiasm. 'Get my room cleaned up, Marie, as soon as you can. Mr Reicher is coming aboard
this evening, and tomorrow at dawn we leave for Echo Island.'

Marie asked no questions before the eager-eared Sylvia Haskins. 'Okay, George,' she said cheerfully.
She dived back into the water, and presently she was heading belowdecks to her father's cabin.