"Jack Vance - The Houses of Iszm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

the new cosmopolitan hotels. The Szecr made no attempt to stop him;
Farr was now on his own, subject only to surveillance.

He relaxed and loafed around the city for almost a week. There were
few other off-world visitors; the Iszic authorities discouraged tourism to
the maximum degree allowed them by the Treaty of Access. Farr tried to
arrange an interview with the Chairman of the Export Council, but an
under-clerk turned him away politely but brusquely, upon learning that
Farr wished to discuss the export of low-quality houses. Farr had expected
no better. He explored the canals and the lagoon in gondolas, and he
strolled the avenues. At least three of the Szecr gave him their time,
quietly following along the avenues and lounging in nearby pods on the
public terraces.

On one occasion he walked around the lagoon to the far side of the
island, a rocky sandy area exposed to the wind and the full force of the
sun. Here the humbler castes lived in modest three-pod houses, growing in
rows with strips of hot sand between the dwellings. These houses were
neutral in color, a brownish gray-green with a central tuft of large leaves
casting black shade over the pods. Such houses were not available for
export and Farr, a man with a highly developed social conscience, became
indignant. A shame these houses could not be made available to the
under-housed billions of Earth! A whole district of such habitations could
be provided for next to nothing: the mere cost of seed! Farr walked up to
one of the houses, peered into a low-hanging pod. Instantly a branch
dropped down, and had Farr not jumped back he might have been
injured. As it was, the heavy terminal frond slapped across his scalp. One
of the Szecr, standing twenty yards distant, sauntered forward. "You are
not advised to molest the trees."

"I wasn't molesting anything or anyone."

The Szecr shrugged. "The tree thought otherwise. It is trained to be
suspicious of strangers. Among the lower castesтАж" the Szecr spat
contemptuously, "feuds and quarrels go on, and the trees become uneasy
at the presence of a stranger."

Farr turned to examine the tree with new interest. "Do you mean that
the trees have a conscious mind?"

The Szecr's answer was no more than an indifferent shrug.

Farr asked, "Why aren't these trees exported? There would be an
enormous market; many people need houses who can afford nothing
better than these."

"You have answered yourself," responded the Szecr. "Who is the dealer
on Earth?"
 "K. Penche."