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

The woman sprang out from behind the counter, flew over to Maxim, and
planted herself in front of him. She grabbed him by his shirt and rummaged
through his pockets. Maxim was so stunned that he didn't resist, but only
repeated "Must not" and looked plaintively at Rada. The old woman, behaving
as though she had suddenly come to a fateful decision, rushed back behind
the counter and grabbed the telephone.
"Fank!" said Maxim with emotion. "Fank hurt! Go. Bad."
The tension broke suddenly. Rada said something to the old woman that
convinced her to put down the phone. She sputtered a bit more, then calmed
down. Rada sat Maxim down again, served him a fresh mug of beer, and to his
delight and relief joined him. For a while everything went smoothly. Rada
asked questions, and Maxim, beaming with pleasure, answered them with "I
don't understand." Maxim laboriously constructed another sentence and
declared: "Rain, massaraksh, bad, fog." Rada broke out laughing. Then
another girl arrived and greeted them. Rada and she left the room, and after
a while Rada re-turned, but without her apron. She was wearing a bright red
cape and carrying a large handbag.
"Let's go," she said, and Maxim jumped up.
They were unable to leave immediately. The old woman began to shout
again. She was angry about something, demanding some-thing. She waved a pen
and sheet of paper in the air. Rada argued with her for a while, but the
other girl came over and took the woman's side. Rada finally relented. Then
the three of them con-fronted Maxim. At first they repeated the same
question, singly and then in chorus, which Maxim, of course, didn't
understand. At last Rada ordered everyone to keep quiet; she clapped Maxim
lightly on the chest.
"Mac Sim?"
"Maxim," he corrected her.
"Max? Im?"
"Maxim. Max - must not. Im - must not. Maxim."
Rada brought her finger to the tip of her nose and said, "Rada Gaal.
Maxim."
"Gaal?" he said. "Guy Gaal?"
Dead silence. They were stunned.
"Guy Gaal," repeated Maxim, overjoyed. "Guy good man."
Suddenly there was a commotion as the women all began to talk at once.
Rada tugged at Maxim and asked something. Obviously she was terribly
interested in learning how he knew Guy. "Guy, Guy, Guy" bobbed up in a
stream of incomprehensible words.
"Massaraksh!" said the old woman as she burst into laughter. And the
girls joined in. Rada took Maxim by the arm, and they went out into the
rain.

They walked to the end of a poorly lit side street and turned into an
even dimmer lane where rickety wooden houses lined a muddy road paved with
uneven cobblestones. Then they made two more turns. The narrow crooked
streets were deserted. Not a single pedestrian was out.
At first Rada chattered animatedly, repeating Guy's name frequently.
Maxim interjected occasionally that Guy was a fine per-son, but added in
Lingcos that one should not beat people in the face, that this was a strange