"Asimov, Isaac - Anniversary" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

Brandon was kneading his chin with an unsteady hand. "Let me
ask Multivac one more question."

He sat down again and tapped out: Give me the name and tube
number of the surviving colleagues of Dr. Horace Quentin from
among those associated with him at the University on whose faculty
he served.

"How do you know he was on a University faculty?" asked
Moore.

"If not, Multivac will tell us."

A slip popped out. It contained only one name.

Moore said, "Are you planning to call the man?"

"I sure am," said Brandon. "Otis Fitzsimmons, with a Detroit rube
number. Warren, may I—"

"Be my guest, Mark. It's still part of the game."

Brandon set up the combination on Moore's tube keyboard. A
woman's voice answered. Brandon asked for Dr. Fitzsimmons and
there was a short wait.

Then a thin voice said, "Hello." It sounded old.

Brandon said, "Dr. Fitzsimmons, I'm representing Trans-space
Insurance in the matter of the late Dr. Horace Quentin—"

"For heaven's sake, Mark," whispered Moore, but Brandon held
up a sharply restraining band.

There was a pause so long that a tube breakdown began to seem
possible and then the old voice said, "After all these years? Again?"

Brandon snapped his fingers in an irrepressible gesture of tri-
umph. But he said smoothly, almost glibly, "We're still trying to find
out, Doctor, if you have remembered further details about what
Dr. Quentin might have had with him on that last trip that would
pertain to his fast unpublished discovery."

"Well"—there was an impatient clicking of the tongue—"I've
told you, I don't know. I don't want to be bothered with this again.
I don't know that there was anything. The man hinted, but he was
always hinting about some gadget or other."

"What gadget, sir?"