"Gene Wolfe - Green Glass" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

Joey nodded his agreement.
"Fine. I'm not allowed to bring you into your future, you understand--uptime
into my own period. It's against regulations."
Joey nodded again. "It was in the movie."
"Right. What I can do, if you want, is return you to a time moments after the
Zkogan seized you. They'll be gone by then. You may or may not remember all this.
If you do, you may repress it." Captain Anno raised his palms in a gesture of
amused helplessness. "Ultimately, that'll be up to you. I can't control it. Do you
want to go?"
"Yes," Joey told him.
"Absolutely," Josephine added, "but I want to ask one question first. Just
one. May I?"
"We've plenty of time." Captain Anno smiled. "Fire away."
"Why are our names so much alike? I mean Joey's and mine. My Aunt
Virginia used to say coinkydink. Is that what this is? Just coinkydink?"
"No." The captain's face was serious now, and even a trifle hard. "The
Zkogan are working their way through the alphabet. There was a time when they took
half a dozen men named Ambrose, for example. We'd love to know why they
operate in that fashion, but we don't. We're hoping that when they get down to Zeke
and Zelda they'll stop. But we're afraid it's going to be something much worse."
Joey said, "You could just go there, couldn't you? And see?"
"I'm afraid not. That time lies in my own future. You can fall to the floor,
Joey. You can do that very easily. Let's see you fall to the ceiling."
Captain Anno turned toward Josephine. "Close your eyes, please. Close them
and keep them closed. It's very important. Crucial, in fact. When I say `go,' you are
to rap your heels together three times, understand? One, two, three. Neither less nor
more. After the third such rap, but only then, you may open them. Is that
understood? If it's not, I can go over it again."
Josephine nodded.
He turned back to Joey. "You heard me, and the escape and evasion
procedure will be the same for you. Try to time your heel raps to coincide with hers.
The closer you come, the better off you'll be, both of you. Got it?"
"Got it," Joey said wearily. He had been trying to pretend he thought Captain
Anno real; in a sudden epiphany, he understood that Josephine was doing the same.
"Good. Shut your eyes, both of you, and wait for my signal."
Joey did not quite close his, and through their slits watched Captain Anno
fade away.
"He's gone," Josephine said, "and we're not. I'm just so tired."
"I understand."
"I want to sleep. I'm going to lie down right here. This place is as good as
any place in this whole terrible place. You can lie down, too, if you want to."
He did not, but sat down at her head.
"Maybe I can dream about home," she whispered.
After a minute or two she added, "Maybe when I wake up, they'll have given
us water, and something to eat."
Still later, when he thought she might be asleep, she said, "I know what you'd
like to do and I'd like to do that, too, but not while they're watching. Tell me about
your green bottle again. Tell me all that stuff, and finish it. Maybe it will help me
sleep."
If she isn't real, Jody thought, she'll fade away when she sleeps.