"Zelazny, Roger - Angel, Dark Angel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

УAnd you do?Ф

УMy hobby,Ф he replied.

At their table, they finished their champagne and smoked and she studied the flower and her companion. The club was done all in silver and black, and the music was softЧand as the dancers seated themselves it lost all semblance of a theme. Her smile was the candle of their table, and he ordered them a dessert and liqueurs to accompany it, and she said, УYour poise defies description.Ф

УThank you, but yours is superior.Ф

УWhat did you do, before you retired?Ф

УI was a paymaster. What of yourself?Ф

УI dealt in accounts receivable, for a large concern.Ф

УThen we have something else almost in common.Ф

УSo it would seem. What will you do now?Ф

УIТd like to continue seeing you, for so long as I am in town.Ф

УHow long might that be?Ф

УFor so long as I might wish, or you desire.Ф

УThen let us finish our sherbet; and since you wish me to have the trophy, we will take it home.Ф

He brushed the back of her hand, lightly, and for an instant their eyes met, and a spark that might have been electric leapt between them and they smiled at precisely the same instant.

After a time, he took her home.

==========

The bat-thing quivered and dipped, on the way to the council of its people. As it passed by a mountaintop, there came a flash of light.

Though its speed was virtually inconceivable and its movement unpredictable, it knew that it would fall in an instant; and it did, as the thunder roared above it.

He held her very closely and their lips met. They stood in the foyer of her big old remodeled house on the outskirts of Cyborg City on Ankus, of the Ceti System, and one of her mechanical servants had taken their cloaks and another the double-handled golden tennis trophy, and the front door had closed behind them and the night lights had come on dim as they had entered.

УYouТll stay awhile,Ф she said.

УFine.Ф

And she led him into a long, sunken living room filled with soft furniture, with a fresco upon one wall. They faced it as he seated himself on the green divan, and he stared at the wall as he lit two cigarettes and she handed him a final drink and joined him there.

УLovely,Ф he said.

УYou like my fresco?Ф

УI hadnТt noticed it.Ф