"Gene Wolfe - Talk of Mandrakes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

Talk of Mandrakes by Gene Wolfe

Talk of Mandrakes is Copyright й 1987 by Gene Wolfe, and was previously
published in Worlds of IF. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's
agents, the Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc.

***

THE MONS WERE NOT RUNNING. Peak coughed into his breather and turned
aside shivering. What do you do when you have to be someplace? And can't get
there?

The man beside him pulled car keys from a pocket.

Beg. "You're probably going to work," Peak said. "I wasn't. I was going to
Skybase Five."

The owner of the keys turned to look at him. Both were breaking the great
unwritten rule of the city: Do not make eye contact.

"Here, sir," Peak tried to make it smooth. "Let me show you." His hand slid
into his worn raincoat, past jacket and sweater, and unbuttoned his shirt. Slowly
enough to let the owner of the keys see that it was not a weapon, he pulled out his
wallet and punched the combination. The pass had come by unasked by e-secure
and the picture was two years old, but it was still recognizable. "You can hold it if
you want, sir. I trust you."

A thousand grumbling commuters swirled around them.

"Admit John Michael Peak, Ph.D." The owner of the keys moved his lips
when he read. He skipped Peak's number. "Thursday twenty-eight N eighty only,
eleven hundred to thirteen hundred only. Building one-one-four." He looked from the
picture to Peak, then back at the picture. "Yeah. that's you all right."

"I'm in xbio," Peak told him. "Doctor Selim wants to see me." He did not
add that the mere fact might make his career.

"Okay..." The owner of the keys said.

"You've got a car, sir, and you could take me. Downtown will be gridlocked
already, with the mons down."

The owner of the keys nodded slowly at first. "Yeah." A more rapid nod. "I
could call in from out there. If they checked on me it'd be on the scan."

"Sure." Peak had struggled to keep his voice normal. It was going to work!
 "Naturally I can't tell the bastards why. Confidential. Come on!"

Together they left the station and rode the speedlator to the street. The car
was yellow, and bigger than Peak had expected.