"Arcady And Boris Strugatsky. Prisoners of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора

"Captain, permission to speak? The sergeant major of the 114th has
brought someone in. Would you mind taking a look?"
The captain went to the window. His eyebrows went up. Opening the
window, he stuck out his head.
'"Sentry, let them pass!"
Guy was closing the window when he heard tramping in the corridor. Zef
and Ms savage companion entered the office. Close on their heels and
crowding them, the chief sentry officer and two other men on sentry duty
burst in. Standing at attention, Zef coughed and fixed his impudent blue
eyes on the captain.
"Sergeant Major Zef, One hundred and fourteenth Sappers' Detachment,
reporting, sir. This fellow was arrested on the road. Captain, from all
outward signs, he's insane. He eats poisonous mushrooms, doesn't understand
a word, speaks unintelligibly, and, as you see, walks around nearly naked."
While Zef was delivering his report, the prisoner scanned his
surroundings and presented a strange smile to everyone present. His teeth
were even and as white as sugar. Folding his hands be-hind his back, the
captain went up closer and inspected him from head to foot.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The prisoner smiled even more strangely, slapped his palm against his
chest, and pronounced something that sounded like "Mac Sim." The chief
sentry guffawed, the sentries sniggered, and the captain smiled. At first
Guy saw nothing humorous in his response; then he realized that "mac sim" in
thieves' slang meant "I ate the knife."
"He's probably one of yours," said the captain to Zef.
Zef shook his head, throwing out a cloud of dust from hjs beard.
"Definitely not. Mac Sim is what he calls himself, but he doesn't
understand Moves' language. So he's not one of us."
"Probably a degen," suggested the chief sentry officer. (They gave him
an icy look.) "Naked," explained the sentry officer as he retreated toward
the door. "May I go now, captain?"
"You may. Send for our staff physician. Dr. Zogu. Where did you catch
him?" he asked Zef.
Zef explained that his detachment had been clearing quadrant23/07
during the night, had destroyed four self-propelled ballistic missiles and
one device of unknown function, and had lost two men in an explosion;
everything was in order. Around seven in the morning this stranger came off
the road from the forest to their campfire. They spotted him from a
distance, followed him unnoticed by taking cover in the bushes, and captured
him at an opportune moment. At first Zef had assumed he was a fugitive, then
decided he was a degen and was about to shoot him, but changed his mind
because this fellow... Zef, embarrassed, ran his fingers through his beard
and concluded: "Because I realized he wasn't a degen."
"How did you reach that conclusion?" asked the captain. The prisoner
stood quietly, arms folded across his powerful chest, glancing alternately
at him and Zef.
Zef said it would be rather difficult to explain.
"In the first place this guy wasn't afraid of anything. Further-more,
he took the broth from the fire and ate exactly one-third, as if he was
entitled to it, as a good friend. But before eating, he shouted into the