"Jack Vance - Assault on a City" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

ASSAULT ON A CITY
Jack Vance



Jack Vance, winner of two Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award, is one
of the most admired writers of modern science fiction; his stories fairly
dance with a colorful inventiveness unmatched in this most imaginative
of all types of fiction. Here is a long and delightful story of adventures in
Earth's distant future, in which Vance brings to life a wonder-filled city
and its hard-pressed inhabitantsтАФ and includes a few observations on
urbanity, subjectivity and gunk.



1
A CERTAIN Angus Barr, officer's steward aboard the spaceship Danaan
Warrior, had taken his pay and gone forth into that district of the city
Hant known as Jillyville in search of entertainment. There, according to
information received by the police, he fell into the company of one Bodred
Histledine, a well-known bravo of the North River district. The two had
entertained themselves briefly at the Epidrome, where Angus Barr won
two hundred dollars at a gambling machine. They then sauntered along
the Parade to the Black Opal Cafe, where they drank lime beer and tried to
pick up a pair of women tourists without success. Continuing north along
the Parade, they crossed the River Louthe by the Boncastle Bridge and
rode the clanking old escalator up Semaphore Hill to Kongo's Blue Lamp
Tavern, and Angus Barr was seen no more.
The disappearance of Angus Barr was reported to the police by the chief
steward of the Danaan Warrior. Acting on a tip, Detectives Clachey and
Delmar located Bo Histledine, whom they knew well, and took him to
Central Authority for examination.
Mind-search produced no clear evidence. According to Bo's memory, he
had spent an innocent evening in front of his term.* Unluckily for Bo, his
memory also included fragmentary recollections of the Epidrome, the
Parade and the Black Opal Cafe. The female tourists not only described
the missing Angus Barr, but also positively identified Bo.


* From the acronym TERM: Total Experience Reproduction Mechanism.


Delmar nodded with grim satisfaction and turned to Bo. "What do you
say to that?"
Bo hunched down in the chair, his face a mask of belligerent obstinacy.
"I told you already. I know nothing about this case. Those backwads** got
me mixed with somebody else. Do you think I'd work on a pair like that?
Look at her!" Bo jerked his head toward the closer of the angry women.
"Face like a plateful of boiled pig's feet. She's not wearing a sweater; that's
the hair on her arms. And her cross-eyed motherтАФ"