"Альфред Бестер. The Flowered Thundermug (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

"You have my assurance that it is for freedom and justice,
the man on the street, the underdogs and the L.A. Way of Life.
Of course, you can refuse this dangerous assignment, and it
will not be held against you, but you are the one man in all
Great L.A. who can carry it out."

"Well," Professor Muni said, "seeing that I have nothing
better to do than mistakenly sneer at a cancer cure today, I
might as well accept."

"I knew we could depend on you. You are the sort of little
man that makes L.A. great. Boris, sing the national anthem."

"Thank you, but I need no praise. I'm just doing what any
loyal, red-blooded, one-hundred-percent Angelino would do."

"Very good. I will pick you up at midnight. You will be
wearing rough tweeds, a felt hat pulled down over your face and
stout shoes. You will carry one hundred feet of mountaineering
rope, prism binoculars and an ugly snub-nosed fission gun. Your
code identity will be .369."



"This," Peter Lorre said, "is .369. .369, may I have the
pleasure of introducing you to X, Y and Z?"

"Good evening, Professor Muni," the Italian-looking
gentleman said. "I am Vittorio De Sica. This is Miss Garbo.
That is Edward Everett Horton. Thank you, Peter. You may go."

Mr. Lorre exited. Muni stared around. He was in a sumptuous
penthouse apartment decorated entirely in white. Even the fire
burning in the grate was, by some miracle of chemistry,
composed entirely of milk-white flames. Mr. Horton was pacing
nervously before the fire. Miss Garbo reclined languidly on a
polar-bear skin, an ivory cigarette holder drooping from her
hand.

"Let me relieve you of that rope, professor," De Sica said.
"And the customary binoculars and snub-nosed pistol, I presume?
I'll take them too. Do make yourself comfortable. You must
forgive our being in faultless evening dress; our cover
identities, you understand. We operate the gambling hell
downstairs. Actually we are-"

"No!" Mr. Horton cried in alarm.

"Unless we have full faith in Professor Muni and are