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

him as if he were a small boy. He'd fix that, as well.
Bo followed her slowly along the conduit. He considered the percept,
then sidled a step closer. In a bluff voice he said, "Sometimes we don't
realize how lucky we are, and that's a fact."
" 'Lucky'?" Alice spoke in an abstracted voice. "Who? The people of
Hant? Or the Cro-Magnons?"
"Us, of course."
"Oh."
"You don't think so?" Bo spoke indulgently.
"Not altogether."
"Look at them! Living in caves. Dancing around a campfire. Eating a
piece of dead bear. That doesn't look so good."
"Yes, their lives lacked delicacy." Alice continued along the conduit,
moving briskly, and frowning just a trifle. She glanced into percepts
depicting aspects of the proto-civilizations; she halted at a percept
presenting in a time-compression sequence the development of Hialkh,
the first city known to archaeologists. The annunciator commented, "At
this particular instant in the human epic, civilization has begun. Behind:
the long gray dawn ages. Ahead: the glories which culminate in Hant! But
beware! look yonder across the Pontus! The cruel barbarians of the
steppes, those expert wielders of sword and axe who time and time again
have ravaged the cities!"
 Bo's now familiar voice spoke, "The only ravagers nowadays are the
tourists."
Alice made no comment, and continued along the conduit. She looked
into the faces of Xerxes, Subotai, Napoleon, Shgulvarsko, Jensen, El Jarm.
She saw battles, sieges, slaughters and routs. Cities developed from
villages, grew great, collapsed into ruins, disappeared into flames. Bo
enunciated his impressions and opinions, to which Alice made
perfunctory acknowledgments. He was something of a nuisance, but she
was too kind to snub him directly and hurt his feelings. Altogether she
found him somewhat repulsive, a curious mixture of innocence and
cynicism; of ponderous affability and sudden sinister silences. She
wondered if he might not be a trifle deranged; odd for a person of his
attributes to be studying the history of man! The percepts and displays,
for all their splendor, began to bore her; there was simply too much to be
encompassed at a casual inspection, and long ago she had learned what
she wanted to know. She said to Bo, "I think I'll be leaving. I hope you
profit by your studies; in fact I know you will if you apply yourself
diligently. Goodbye."
"Wait," said Bo. "I've seen enough for today." He fell into step beside
her. "What are you going to do now?"
Alice looked at him sidewise. "I'm going to find some lunch. I'm hungry.
Why do you ask?"
"I'm hungry too. We're not all that different, you and I."
"Just because we're both hungry? That's not logical. Crows, vultures,
rats, sharks, dogs: they all get hungry. I don't identify myself with any of
these."
Bo frowned, examining the implications of the remark. They left the
Hall of History and came out into the daylight. Bo asked gruffly, "You