"Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. The snail on the slope" - читать интересную книгу автора

Now you, Mr. Pepper, play chess with him, you might put in a little word for
me. He respects you, he often talks of you, 'Pepper,' he says, 'he's a
character! I won't give a vehicle for Pepper and don't ask. We can't let a
man like that go. Understand, all you zombies, we couldn't carry on without
him!' Put in a word, eh?"
"All right," Pepper brought out in a low voice, "I'll try."
"I can speak with the manager," said Hausbotcher. "We served together.
I was a captain and he was my lieutenant. He greets me to this day, bringing
his hand to his headgear."
"Then there's the mermaids," said Acey, weighing his glass of yogurt.
"In big clear lakes. They lie there, get it? Nothing on."
"Your yogurt's putting ideas into your head," said Hausbotcher.
"I haven't seen them myself," rejoined Acey. "But the water from those
lakes isn't fit to drink."
"You haven't seen them because they don't exist," said Hausbotcher.
"Mermaids, that's mysticism."
"You're another mysticism," said Acey, wiping his eye with a sleeve.
"Wait a bit," said Pepper, "wait a bit. Acey, you say they're lying ...
is that all? They can't just lie and that's all."
"Maybe they live underwater and float up onto the surface, just like we
go out onto the balcony to escape from smoke-filled rooms on moonlit nights
and, eyes closed, bare our face to the chill, then they can just lie. Just
lie and that's all. Rest. And talk lazily and smile at each other. . . ."
"Don't argue with me," said Acey, looking obstinately at Hausbotcher.
"Have you ever been in the forest? Never been in there once, have you, to
hell."
"Silly if I did," said Hausbotcher. "What would I be doing there in
your forest? I've got a permit into your forest. And you, Acey, haven't got
one at all. Show me, if you please, your permit, Acey."
"I didn't see the mermaids myself," repeated Acey, turning to Pepper,
"but I entirely believe in them. Because the boys have told me. So did
Kandid even, and he was the one who knew everything about the forest. He
used to go into that forest like a man to his woman, put his finger on
anything. He perished there in his forest."
"If he did," said Hausbotcher significantly.
"What do you mean 'if'? Man flies off in his helicopter, three years no
sight or sound. His obituary was in the paper, we held the wake, what more
d'you want? Kandid crashed, that's for sure."
"We don't know enough," said Hausbotcher, "to assert anything with
complete certainty."
Acey spat and went to the counter to order another bottle of yogurt. At
this, Hausbotcher leaned over and whispered in Pepper's ear, his eyes
darting:
"Bear in mind that touching Kandid there was a sealed directive. ... I
consider it right for me to inform you, because you are a person from
outside."
"What directive?"
"To regard him as alive," said Hausbotcher in a hollow whisper and
moved away. "Nice, fresh yogurt today," he announced loudly.
Noise increased in the canteen. Those who had already breakfasted were