"David Brin - Fourth Vacation of George Gustaf" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brin David)

most respected robo-psychiatrists in Europe. His intellectual avocations included law
and history, in each of which he had been awarded honorary professional status, a
rare encomium. Everyone envied a person who won Vocation in more than one area.
Gustaf had three professions!
 He knocked on the door. After a moment it was opened by a dark-haired young
man of above medium height, who smiled broadly and offered his hand.
"Mr. Smith? Please come in and have a seat. I'll be right with you."
Hamilton found himself a chair across from a broad, hand-carved mahogany
desk. Dr. Gustaf passed through a side door into a treatment room. Hamilton could
hear him giving firm advice to a Drone Class robot. The machine's answers were a
series of clicks and beeps that Hamilton couldn't begin to interpret.
He looked at the items on display on the wall of the office. There were diplomas,
of course, and trophies from athletic competitions. He noted that few of the works
of art had that look that said they had come from somebody's hobby. Most
appeared to be quite old.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Smith." Gustaf came in, closing the door behind him. He hung his
lab coat on a hanger, then took a seat across from Hamilton.
"Now, I suppose this is about the old Bath and Garter, isn't it? Farrell told me
about your visit yesterday. It was all right for him to do that, wasn't it? He said you
didn't ask for confidentiality."
"Oh, sure. That's fine." Hamilton waved nonchalantly. Actually, he had intended
to ask Cooper to respect the convention, but he had been running late for basketball
practice and afterward a round of committed pleasure reading, and he had forgotten.
Today he had uncharacteristically rushed through his work at the bank and left
early.
"Now, about your ritual club. Mr. Cooper makes some claims about its antiquity
that are, frankly, hard to believe. Lying to a credentialed researcher is a crime, you
know. Perhaps you can explain his extravagant story?"
Gustaf nodded seriously. "Oh, I'm sure Farrell meant no harm. Perhaps he got a
little carried away and misinterpreted some of the facts.
"You see, Mr. Smith, the Bath and Garter has been registered as a ritual club for
nearly three hundred years. That's about the same age as our Total Social World
State."
"I see. So your members are justifiably proud to be part of one of the oldest
clubs. Perhaps that explains Cooper's flights of fancy." Actually, Hamilton was a
little disappointed. He had hoped for something more unusual.
Gustaf nodded. "Of course, the precursors of the society go back several
thousand years before the Amalgamation. There were the English Knights of the
Bath, of course, and the Fujiwara clan, which held the curtain to the Chrysanthemum
throne..."
Gustaf's fingers formed a bridge and he tilted back in his chair. "Do you see that
ancient fan, Mr. Smith? The one in that case? It is the patent granted by the last
ethnic Chinese emperor to his infant son. It was ratified by townsmen and elders up
and down the Yangtze before the Manchu invaders arrived. The secret society that
hid that child and his descendants is one of those that merged into the Bath and
Garter hundreds of years ago. The child they protected was one of my ancestors."
Hamilton blinked. "Then Cooper's claims that you are this... this king'..."
Gustaf shrugged. "It's all well documented, Mr. Smith. By all the old laws of
inheritance I am the heir of the merged royal families of Europe, Asia, and large parts
of the rest of the world."