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

Raulf gave his head a dubious shake. "There's no scenery; we don't have
a script; we'd need a buckтАФ"
"I'll be the buck. All we need is the studio. No story, no sets: just the
situation. She's so arrogant, so haughty! She'll throw a first-class display!
Outrage. Apprehension. Fury. The works! I'm itching to lay hands on her
beautiful body."
"She'll turn you in. If she's around to do so."
"She'll be around. I want her to remember a long time. I'll have to wear
a clown-mask; I can't risk having Clachey or Delmar look at the gunk and
say 'Hey! there's Bo!' Here's how we can arrange it so we're both clearтАФ"
Raulf inclined his head toward Alice. "You're too late. She's leaving."
"The wicked little wench, I told her to wait!"
"I guess she just remembered," said Raulf mildly. "Because suddenly
now she's waiting."
Alice had seen enough of the Blue Lamp Tavern, more than enough of
Hant; she wanted to be back up on the aerie, high in the clear blue air. But
a man had entered the room, to take an unobtrusive seat to the side, and
Alice peered in wonder. Surely it wasn't Waldo? But it was! though he
wore a loose golden-brown slouch hat, bronze cheek-plates, a voluminous
parasol cape of beetle-back green, all of which had the effect of disguising
his appearance. Now, why had Waldo come to the Blue Lamp Tavern?
Alice curbed a mischievous impulse to cross the room and put the
question directly. Bo and his friend had their heads together; they were
obviously plotting an escapade of some sort, probably to the discredit of
both. Alice glanced back to Waldo to find him staring at her with furtive
astonishment. Alice found his emotion highly amusing, and she decided to
wait another few minutes to learn what eventuated.
Two other men approached Waldo and joined him at his table. One of
the two directed Waldo's attention to Bo with an almost imperceptible
inclination of the head. Waldo darted a puzzled look across the room, then
returned to his informant. He seemed to be saying, "But he's not blond!
The photograph showed blond hair!" And his friend perhaps remarked,
"Hair dye is cheap." To which Waldo gave a dubious nod.
Alice began to quiver with merriment. Waldo had been surprised to
find her at the Blue Lamp Tavern, but in a moment Bo would come
swaggering back across the room, and indeed Bo now rose to his feet. For
a moment he stood looking off into nothing, with what Alice thought a
rather unpleasant smirk on his face. His bulk, his meaty jaw, the round
stare of his eyes, the flaring nostrils, suggested the portrayal of a Minoan
man-bull she had noticed earlier in the day; the resemblance was
fascinating.
Bo crossed the room to the table where Alice sat. Waldo leaned forward,
jaw sagging in shock.
Bo seated himself. Alice was more than ever conscious of his new mood.
The rather obsequious manner he had cultivated at the Academy was
gone; now he seemed to exude a reek of bravado and power. Alice said,
"I'm just about ready to go. Thank you for showing me the tavern here; it's
really a quaint old place, and I'm glad to have seen it."
Bo sat looking at her, with rather more intimacy than she liked. He said
in a husky voice, "My friend yonder is a police agent. He wants to show me