"Doorsways in the Sand 05" - читать интересную книгу автора (Varley John)

I took another big swallow.
"Nadler was back the next day, asking whether I'd remembered anything else. He'd already given me a number to call if I did, or if I heard from you. So I was irritated. I said no and got rid of him. Then he came around again this morning to impress on me that it was to your benefit if I cooperated, that you might be in trouble and that I could help you by being honest. By the time they had learned of your difficulties at the Sydney Opera House, he said, you'd disappeared into the desert. What happened at the Sydney Opera House anyway?"
"Later, later. Get on with it. Or is that all?"
"No, no. I got irritated again, told him NO again and that was all so far as he was concerned. But there were other inquiries. I received at least half a dozen phone calls from people who claimed they just had to get in touch with you, that it was very important. None of them would say why, though. Or give me anything that could be used to trace them."
"What do you mean? Did you try tracing them?"
"No, but the detective did."
"Detective?"
"I was just getting to that part. This place has been broken into and ransacked on three separate occasions during the past two weeks. Naturally, I called the cops. I didn't see any connection with the calls, but after the third time the detective wanted me to tell him about anything unusual that had happened recently. So I mentioned that strange people kept calling and asking for a friend who was out of town. Several of them had left numbers, and he thought it was worth looking into. I talked with him yesterday, though, and he said nothing had turned up. All of them were from semipublic phones."
"Was anything stolen?"
"No. That bothered him, too."
"I see," I said, sipping slowly. "Has anyone approached you directly with unusual questions not involving me? Specifically, about that stone of Byler's?"
"No. But you might be interested in knowing that his lab was broken into while you were away. No one could really tell whether anything was missing. Getting back to your other question, though, while nobody approached me about the stone, someone seemed to be getting near for some purpose or other. Maybe it was tied in with the entry and searching here. I don't know. But for several days it seemed that I was being followed about. I didn't pay much attention at first. Actually, it wasn't until things started happening that I thought of him. The same man, not especially obtrusive, but always around-somewhere. Never came near enough for me to get a good look. At first I thought I was just being neurotic. Later, of course, he came to mind. Too late, though. He disappeared after the police started paying attention to me and to this building."
He tossed off the rest of his drink and I finished mine.
"That pretty much summarizes things," he said. "Let me fix us a couple more of these, then you tell me what you know."
"Go ahead."
I lit a cigarette and pondered. There had to be a pattern to all this, and it seemed likely that the star-stone was the key. There were too magy subsidiary actions to try to separate, analyze, follow up individually. If I knew more about the stone, though, I felt that these recent happenings might begin to drift into truer perspective. Thus began my list of priorities.
Hal returned with the drinks, gave me mine, reseated himself.
"All right," he said, "considering everything that's been happening here. I'm ready to believe anything you've got to tell me."
So I told him most of what had occurred since my departure.
"I don't believe you," he said when I had finished.
"I can't lend you my memories in any better condition."
"Okay, okay," he said "It's weird. But then, so are you. No offense. Let me fog my brain a little more and I'll try to consider it. Right back."
He went and freshened the drinks again. I was beyond caring. I had lost count during the time I'd been talking.
"You were being serious?" he finally said.
"Yes."
"Then those fellows are probably still back at the apartment."
"Possibly."
"Why not call the police?"
"Hell, for all I know they may be the police."
"Toasting the Queen that way?"
"Could be their old alma maters Homecoming Queen. I don't know. I'd just as soon no one knew I'm back till I've learned more and done more thinking."
"Okay. Silence here. What can I do to help?"
"Think. You've been known to have an original idea every now and then. Come up with one."
"All right," he said. "I have been thinking about it. Everything seems to go back to the star-stone facsimile. What is it about the thing that makes it so important?"
"I give up. Tell me."
"I don't know. But let's consider everything that is known about it."
"Okay. The original came to us on loan as part of that cultural exchange deal we've joined. It was described as a relic, a specimen of unknown utility-but most likely decorative-found among the ruins of a dead civilization. Seems to be synthetic. If so, it may be the oldest intelligently fashioned object in the galaxy."
"Which makes it priceless."
"Naturally."
"If it were lost or destroyed here, we could be kicked out of the exchange program."
"I suppose that is possible . . ."
" 'Suppose,' hell! We can. I looked it up. The library now has a full translation of the agreement, and I got curious enough to see what it said. A hearing would be held, and the other members would vote on the matter of our expulsion."
"Good thing it hasn't been lost or destroyed."
"Yeah. Great."
"How could Byler have gotten access to it?"
"My guess is still the UN itself-that they approached him to create a duplicate for display purposes, he did it and then there was a mixup."
"I can't see the mixup on something that important."
"Then suppose it was intentional."
"How so?"
"Say they loaned it to him, and instead of returning the original and a copy he returned two copies. I can see him as wanting to hang onto it and study it for as long as he could. He could have given it back when he was finished or caught, whichever came first, and claimed he had made a simple error. No fuss could be raised, with the entire enterprise that clandestine. Or perhaps I am being too devious. Maybe he'd had it on a legitimate loan all the while, studying it at their request. Whichever, let us suppose that he'd had the original up until a while back."