"Donald Westlake - SH3 - Heaven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westlake Donald E)

the Lord's Prayer."

The Hopeful's automatic pilot had set the ship gently down on a wide, barren, rocky plain, similar in
appearance to several unpopulated islands of the coast of Norway. A door in the side of the ship
opened, a ladder protruded itself slowly from within, like a worm from an apple, and once it had pinged
solidly onto the stony scree, Councilman Luthguster emerged and paused at the platform at the ladder's
top. Captain Standforth, Billy Shelby and Ensign Benson followed, and all four stared down at the
welcoming committee below.

Who were Achum, his unsacrificed daughter Malya and all the worshipers, every last one of them
decked out in the Hopeful's laundry. And when Achum looked up at that fat figure atop the ladder and
recalled the god statue in his church, hope became certainty: Prostrating himself, with his forehead on the
ground, he cried out, in a voice of terror and awe, "Juju-Kuxtil! Juju-Kuxtil!"

The other worshipers, quick on the uptake, also prostrated themselves, and the cry went up from one
and all: "Juju-Kuxtil! Juju-Kuxtil!"

"Not very much like my religion," Luthguster said and led the group down the ladder to the ground,
where the worshipers continued to lie on their faces and shout out the same name. The instant
Luthguster's foot touched rock, Achum scrabbled forward on knees and elbows to embrace the
councilman's ankles. "Here! Here!" cried Luthguster, not at all pleased.

Achum half rose. "Hear, hear!" he shouted. "Hip, hip -"

"Hooray!" yelled the worshipers.

"Hip, hip -"

"Hooray!"

"Hip, hip -"

"Hooray!"

Ensign Benson had approached one of the prostrate worshipers, and now he attracted the fellow's
attention with a prodding boot in the ribs. "Say, you. What's going on around here?"

"Juju-Kuxtil!" answered the wide-eyed worshiper and nodded in awe at Luthguster. "God! It's God!"

Achum was on his feet, prancing around, crying, "A feast for Juju-Kuxtil! A feast! A feast!"

Luthguster, beginning to get the idea, looked around and visibly became more enamored of it. Frowning
at him, Ensign, Benson said, "That's God?"

"He's shorter in person, isn't he" said the worshiper.



The feast was outdoors and vaguely Polynesian in effect, with the visitors and the natives all sitting in a
great oval. At the head of the oval, at Councilman Luthguster's right hand, the priest Achum stood and