"Connie Willis - Fire Watch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

I considered shipping out the OED after all on the grounds that Wales was a foreign country,
didn't think they had microfilm in 1940. Ayarpee. It could be anything, including a nickname fo
fire watch, in which case the impulse to say no was not safe at all. "No," I said.
He lunged suddenly toward and past me and peered out the open doors. "Damn," he said, co
back to me. "Where are they then? Bunch of lazy bourgeois tarts!" And so much for getting b
context.
He looked at me closely, suspiciously, as if he thought I was only pretending not to be with
ayarpee. "The church is closed," he said finally.
I held up the envelope and said, "My name's Bartholomew. Is Dean Matthews in?"
He looked out the door a moment longer, as if he expected the lazy bourgeois tarts at any mo
and intended to attack them with the white bundle, then he turned and said, as if he were guid
tour, "This way, please," and took off into the gloom.
He led me to the right and down the south aisle of the nave. Thank God I had memorized the
plan or at that moment, heading into total darkness, led by a raving verger, the whole bi
metaphor of my situation would have been enough to send me out the west doors and back t
John's Wood. It helped a little to know where I was. We should have been passing nu
twenty-six: Hunt's painting of "The Light of the World"-Jesus with his lantern-but it was too da
see it. We could have used the lantern ourselves.
He stopped abruptly ahead of me, still raving. "We weren't asking for the bloody Savoy, j
few cots. Nelson's better off than we are-at least he's got a pillow provided." He brandished
white bundle like a torch in the darkness. It was a pillow after all. "We asked for them ov
fortnight ago, and here we still are, sleeping on the bleeding generals from Trafalgar because t
bitches want to play tea and crumpets with the tommies at Victoria and the Hell with us!"
He didn't seem to expect me to answer his outburst, which was good, because I had unders
perhaps one key word in three. He stomped on ahead, moving out of sight of the one pathetic
candle and stopping again at a black hole. Number twenty-five: stairs to the Whispering Gallery
Dome, the library (not open to the public). Up the stairs, down a hall, stop again at a medieval
and knock. "I've got to go wait for them," he said. "If I'm not there they'll likely take them over t
Abbey. Tell the Dean to ring them up again, will you?" and he took off down the stone steps
holding his pillow like a shield against him.
He had knocked, but the door was at least a foot of solid oak, and it was obvious the
Reverend Dean had not heard. I was going to have to knock again. Yes, well, and the man ho
the pinpoint had to let go of it, too, but even knowing it will all be over in a moment and you w
feel a thing doesn't make it any easier to say, "Now!" So I stood in front of the door, cursing
history department and the esteemed Dunworthy and the computer that had made the mis-take
brought me here to this dark door with only a letter from a fictitious uncle that I trusted no more
I trusted the rest of them.
Even the old reliable Bodleian had let me down. The batch of research stuff I cross-ord
through Balliol and the main terminal is probably sitting in my room right now, a century ou
reach. And Kivrin, who had already done her practicum and should have been bursting with ad
walked around as silent as a saint until I begged her to help me.
"Did you go to see Dunworthy?" she said.
"Yes. You want to know what priceless bit of information he had for me? `Silence and humilit
the sacred burdens of the historian.' He also told me I would love St. Paul's. Golden gems from
master. Unfortunately, what I need to know are the times and places of the bombs so one doesn
on me." I flopped down on the bed. "Any suggestions?"
"How good are you at memory retrieval?" she said.
I sat up. "I'm pretty good. You think I should assimilate?" "There isn't time for that," she sai
think you should put everything you can directly into long-term."
"You mean endorphins?" I said.