"Asimov, Isaac - Robot City 02 - Suspicion - Michael McQuay" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

It was worlds that were being turned here, physical and spatial laws that were being forced upside down?all for him? Nothing made sense.
And then there was the Key, the object that everyone wanted, the object that was safely hidden by the person who couldn?t control it. The robots here didn?t know he had it. Were they looking for it, too? He?d have to find out. The Key seemed to be the one strain that held everything else together.
Keeping that in mind, he determined to move slowly, to try always to get more in the way of information than he gave. He?d been at a disadvantage for the entire length of his memory. From this point, he wanted to keep the upper hand as far as possible.
But there was, of course, the murder.

Derec stood on the balcony of the apartment given to him and Katherine by the robots, looking out over the night city. A stiff, cold wind had come up, the starfield totally obscured by dark, angry clouds that seemed to boil up out of nowhere. Lightning flashed in the distance, electrons seeking partner protons on the surface. It was a beautiful sight, and frightening. Derec watched the distant buildings light to near daytime before plunging once more into darkness.
?There,? he said, pointing to a distant tower. ?It wasn?t there a centad ago.?
Katherine walked up beside him, leaning against the balcony rail. ?Where was it?? she asked, mocking.
?It wasn?t anywhere,? he replied, turning to take her by the shoulders. ?It didn?t exist.?
?That?s impossible,? she replied, then turned and walked back into the large, airy apartment that sat at the top of another tower like the one Derec said had sprung from nowhere. ?I wish they?d get here with our food.?
?They?re probably fixing us something extra special,? Derec said, joining her in the living room. ?And impossible seems to be the way of our lives right now, doesn?t it? I?m telling you, Katherine, that along with everything else that doesn?t make sense, this . . . city is growing, changing right before our eyes.?
?How can that be?? she asked, and looked around uneasily. ?I mean . . . cities are built, aren?t they? They don?t just grow.?
Derec stared a circle around the room. It was hexagonal, like standing on the inside of a crystal, with no visible line of demarcation for the ceilings and floor. The furniture seemed to flow from the walls, as the table seemed to flow upward from the floor. Light concentrated from the ceiling and lit the room comfortably, but it seemed the ceiling itself that was alight, with no external apparatus to make it happen.
?Look around you,? Derec said. ?Everything?s connected to everything else, and connected seamlessly. And it all seems to be made from the same material.? He walked to a sofa that flowed out of the wall and sat on the cushion that formed its base. ?Comfortable,? he said, ?but I think it?s made from the same material as the harder stuff?some kind of steel and plastic alloy?just in different measure.?
Katherine had walked to the table and was staring at it. ?If you look closely,? she said, ?you can see a pattern to the material.?
Derec stood and walked up beside her, leaning down on the table to get a close look. The pattern was faint, but readable. The table was made up of a collection of trapezoidal shapes, interwoven and repeated over and over.
?Interesting,? Derec said.
?How so??
?Is the shape familiar to you?? She narrowed her brows in concentration for a moment, then looked at him with wide eyes. ?The same shape as the Key,? she said.
He nodded.
Katherine left him standing there and hurried back out to the balcony.
?It?s almost like individual pieces stuck together,? he called to her. ?I wonder how they connect . . . ?
?It?s gone!? she shrieked, and Derec hurried onto the balcony. ?Your tower from before, it?s gone!?
?No it?s not,? he said, pointing farther to the east.?
It?s moved??
He shook his head. ?I don?t think so.? He pointed to the huge, pyramidal structure that dominated the landscape to the west. It was at the top of that place where they were first brought by the Key. ?That?s the only building I think doesn?t change. And we couldn?t see it from the balcony a moment ago.?
?You mean, we?ve changed??
?Something like that.?
She put a hand to her head. ?I didn?t see . . . feel, I . . . ?
?It?s kind of like watching clouds,? he said. ?If you stare at them from moment to moment, they seem to be solid and stationary, but once you turn away and then look back, they?ve changed. It?s almost like some sort of evolutionary growth . . . ?
?In a building??
?If you stay out there much longer, you will probably get wet,? came a voice from behind them. They turned to see Euler?s glowing eyes staring at them in the darkness.
?We?ve gotten wet before,? Katherine returned, looking past Euler to the food being set out on their table. ?Ah, a last meal for the condemned.?
?The rain here is particularly cool,? the robot said, and watched as Katherine shoved past him and ran into the dining area, ?perhaps uncomfortably cool for the human body temperature.?
Thunder rumbled loudly in the distance, a brilliant shaft of lightning striking the top of the towering pyramid. Derec turned from the spectacle and moved toward the doorway, Euler stepping aside to let him pass.
He walked to the table, sitting across from Katherine, who was already piling food from a large golden bowl onto her plate, also gold-colored. The food seemed to be of a uniform, paste-like consistency, its color drifting somewhere between blue and gray. Golden cups filled with water sat beside the plates.
?Are these utensils made of gold?? Derec asked, clanging a spoon melodiously against his plate.
?Correct,? Rydberg said. ?It?s a relatively useless soft metal that is a by-product of our mining operations. Its one major virtue besides its use as a conductor is the fact that it doesn?t tarnish, making it ideal for human eating utensils. We made these things for David?s visit.?
Derec watched the serving spoon slip from Katherine?s grasp to clang loudly against her plate. And for just a second her face turned white.
?That?s what you told me my name was,? Derec said, finding the coincidence a little too close for his comfort.
She fixed him with unfocused eyes, then shrugged, looking normal again. ?It?s a common enough name on Spacer worlds,? she said, returning her attention to her plate.
She picked up the spoon and went back to the job at hand. Derec looked up at the robots who stood beside the table and the small servo Type-I:5 robot waiting patiently near the door for the return of the utensils.
?Would you care to sit with us while we eat?? Derec asked, and felt Katherine kick him under the table.
?Delighted,? Euler said without hesitation, and the two robots sat at table attentively, apparently enjoying in their way the human familiarity.
Derec took the serving spoon and began filling his own plate. ?I take it that David was the other human who came here?? he asked.
?That is correct,? Rydberg said.
?Then he came in a ship?? Derec pressed.
?No,? Euler said. ?He simply walked into the city one day.?
?From where??
?I don?t know.?