"Roger Zelazny - The Doors of His Face The Lamps of His Mouth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

the deck.

"Luck," called the pilot as the door was sliding shut. Then he danced
into the air and the flag clicked blank.

I shouldered my stuff and went below.

Signing in with Malvern, the de facto captain, I learned that most of
the others wouldn't arrive for a good eight hours. They had wanted me alone
at Cal's so they could pattern the pub footage along twentieth-century
cinema lines.

Open: landing strip, dark. One mechanic prodding a contrary hopper.
Stark-o-vision shot of slow bus pulling in. Heavily dressed baitman
descends, looks about, limps across field. Close-up: he grins. Move in for
words: "Do you think this is the time? The time he _will_ be landed?"
Embarrassment, taciturnity, a shrug. Dub something-"I see. And why do you
think Miss Luharich has a better chance than any of the others? Is it
because she's better equipped? [Grin.] Because more is known now about the
creature's habits than when you were out before? Or is it because of her
will to win, to be a champion? Is it any one of these things, or is it all
of them?" Reply: "Yeah, all of them." "--Is that why you signed on with her?
Because your instincts say, 'This one will be it'?" Answer: "She pays union
rates. I couldn't rent that damned thing myself. And I want in." Erase. Dub
something else. Fade-out as he moves toward hopper, etcetera.

"Cheese," I said, or something like that, and took a walk around
Tensquare, by myself.

I mounted each Rook, checking out the controls and the underwater video
eyes. Then I raised the main lift.

Malvern had no objections to my testing things this way. In fact, he
encouraged it. We had sailed together before and our positions had even been
reversed upon a time. So I wasn't surprised when I stepped off the lift into
the Hopkins Locker and found him waiting. For the next ten minutes we
inspected the big room in silence, walking through its copper coil chambers
soon to be Arctic.

Finally, he slapped a wall.

"Well, will we find it?"

I shook my head.

"I'd like to, but I doubt it. I don't give two hoots and a damn who
gets credit for the catch, so long as I have a part in it. But it won't
happen. That gal's an egomaniac. She'll want to operate the Slider, and she
can't."