"Joan D. Vinge, txt v2.0, To Bell the Cat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Joan D)

Isthp, Mng: We must contact the shining creature!

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Jary lay back on the examining table while Orr checked his body for broken bones and scanned him with a radiation counter. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the empty specimen box, still lying on the floor where Orr had dumped it when he entered the tent. Orr had kept him waiting while he talked with Corouda outside - but so far he hadn't said anything more about the loss of the trogs. Jary wondered how much Corouda had really seen - or whether he had seen anything. No one had ever looked at him the way Corouda had, at the bottom of the cleft ... and so he couldn't be sure what it really meant.

"There's nothing wrong with you that's worth treating." Orr gestured him up. "Hairline fractures on a couple of your ribs."

Jary sat up on the table's edge, mildly relieved, pressing his bruised hand down against the cold metal surface. Orr was angry; he knew the way every line settled on that unexpressive face. But Orr might only be angry because he'd lost the specimens.

"Something else bothering you?"

"Yes - " he answered the graying back of Orr's head, because Orr had already turned away to the storage chests. "You l - let me fall. Didn't you?" He had found the muddy safety line intact, and the unfastened latch at the end.

Orr turned around, surprised, and looked at him. "Yes, I did. I had to release the rope or you might have dragged me into the crevice with you."

Jary laughed sharply.

Orr nodded, as though he had found an answer, "Is that why you did it?"

"What?"

"Turned the specimens loose. Because I let you fall - is that it?"

"No." He shook his head, enduring Orr's pale scrutiny.

"Don't lie to me." Orr's expression changed slightly, as Jary's face stayed stubborn. "Warden Corouda told me he saw you do it."

No - The word died this time before it reached his mouth. His gaze broke. He looked down at his feet, traced a scar with his eyes.

"So." The satisfied nod, again. Orr reached out and caught his wrist. "You know how important those animals are. And you know how much trouble and risk is involved in bringing them back." Orr forced Jary's hand down onto the shining tabletop, with the strength that was always a surprise to him. Orr picked up a scalpel.

Jary's fingers tightened convulsively. "They'll g - g - grow back!"

Orr didn't look at him. "I need some fresh tissue samples; you'll supply them. Open your fist."

"Please. Please don't hurt my h - hands."

Orr used the scalpel. And Jary screamed.

"What are you doing in here, Orr?"

A sharp and angry woman's voice filled the tent space. Jary blinked his vision clear, and saw Warden Soong-Hyacin standing inside the entrance, her eyes hard with indignation. She looked at the scalpel Orr still held, at the blood pooling in Jary's hand. She called to someone outside the tent; Corouda appeared beside her in the opening. "Witness this for me."

Corouda followed her gaze, and he grimaced. "What's going on?"

"Nothing that concerns you, Wardens." Orr frowned, more in annoyance than embarrassment.

"Anything that happens on our world concerns us," Soong-Hyacin said. "And that includes your torture - "