"Gene Wolfe - Copperhead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

After the general's car went into Three Mile Woods, I looked at them. I don't know why, but I did.
Perhaps I had heard something."

He paused, cleared his throat. "Suddenly they moved, stirred. There was only a very light breeze so it
wasn't that. There was something in there, something under the leaves, and I guess my hand tightened on
the Changer. It must have, because there you were."

"Ahh!"

"Yes. You know the rest. You know a lot more, too. Things you won't tell about the place you came
from." He knew he should pick up the Changer at this point, but he discovered that he was unable to do
so. He pointed to it instead. "I'm going to change you again. You know why, unless you're a lot stupider
than I think you are."

"'Ou dheenk Aw dell 'ou vhife."

"No. No, I take it back. Yes, that and a couple of dozen other things. I'm going to offer you a last
chance. Do you want to stay here?"

"Aw douh nawt car."

"I offer it anyway. You've always said you don't remember the place you came from, the other universe.
I'll be frank, since this is likely to be our last conversation. You've lied to us. Tell me the truth, and it's
possible--just possible--that something you say will change my mind. Do you want to try?"

She rose again and went to the window, staring out into the spring night. "Ees zo confuse."

He waited; and when she did not speak again, he said, "There are three buttons, and I don't know which
one I pressed. I may send you back. But I may simply send you someplace else. I don't know. This is
your last chance."

"Vhas a groose." She turned, and her eyes were the color of heaven, and she was the loveliest woman
the new President had ever seen. "Nawt lak 'ou. Aw zay, 'ou vhill nawt neffer grawnt offer mee agan."
She shrugged. "Dhoss bhoyes, de vhun keels de odder. Aw douh nawthing."

He said, "The first time I heard you talk like this I fell for it hook, line, and sinker."

He had reached for the Changer as he spoke. Her hand had to travel twice as far, but it struck like a
snake. For an instant--perhaps it was half a second, perhaps less--she held it and looked at him,
savoring the moment; and her eyes were as black as the Changer itself, a blackness in which red sparks
danced. Her thumb depressed one of the red buttons.



╖╖╖╖╖



His clothing collapsed in a heap. She did not see it, seeing only the naked man who stood before the
chair in which the new President had sat. So tall was he that his head nearly brushed the ceiling; and so