"Brunner, John - Wrong End Of Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brunner John)

"Are you-are you Magda Hansen?" the woman said hesitantly, seeing her come down the stairs from the hoverhalt.
"Yes." Magda shook back her coarse black hair and
felt in her pocket for her key, the twin of Danty's. "Why?.

"Well-uh-I'm Fenella Clarke. Avice Donnelly said I should come to you. She says you're absolutely wonderful."
"Kind of her," Magda sighed. "So what do you want?"
"Help." was the pathetic answer. "And I don't know what kind." She began to twist a platinum wedding-band around and around on her finger. "It's-it's the way it was with Avice. more or less."
It would be. But Magda kept her face straight.
"So I thought-uh-I ought to talk to you, too."
"Very well. Shall we say Monday at three?'"
Mrs. Clarke's face fell. She said. "I was hoping . . ."
"No I'm sorry," Magda cut in. "You must know from Avice that I can't work a one-day miracle, and I have someone waiting inside right now."
"But my husband . . . 1 Fluttering her hands. "You see. he's gone to the West Coast, but he comes back Monday!"
"He wouldn't approve?"
A helpless head-shake. Yes, that figured. If he was typical he'd say at once, "You're not to waste my money on a quack!"
"Perhaps you'd rather leave it until the next time he's away," Magda suggested. "Otherwise Monday really is the earliest I can offer."
"Very well," Mrs. Clarke sighed, and turned away.

Danty was lying on one of the couches, eyes closed. Thinking him asleep. she entered quietly, but he heard her and called a greeting. She blew him a kiss and headed for the shower-stall. As she began to hang her clothes on a chair, she said, "How was it, Danty? Was it right?"
"Too right," he answered, frowning. "A man came out of the sea. And there was another man waiting to take him away in a car."
"Wasn't that what you expected?"
"Yell" Danty sat upright with a jerk. "Yes, exactly! Magda, it's getting so accurate, I'm worried!"
"You'd be a lot more worried if you'd gone to that much trouble for something that didn't work out," Magda said, and stepped into the shower. For the next couple

of minutes the noise of water was too loud for conversation; besides, another hovercar pulled up and the building trembled.
Then she emerged, wrapped a towel around her, and sat down facing him. She said, "I guess you've had enough time to make sense of what you saw?"
"Not really," Danty muttered. "What do you think?"
"An East Bloc agent being landed?"
' "In a reserved area? Under the nose of radar and nuclear missiles? Jesus why? For all their talk of security, the borders aren't tight-why not bring an agent in through Alaska, or Canada? The Cubans send theirs in through Mexico, don't they? Hell, the guy came out of the biggest submarine I ever saw, and if I-"
He stopped dead in mid-sentence. Magda tensed.
"Go on!" she encouraged.
He gave her a blank, helpless stare. "I . . . oh, I think sometimes I shall go insane! Do you know what I did? When I got through the fence, I-I felt out the equipment. I found the central switch-house, this little round thing made of that artificial ruby they use over in Lakonia, and I sneaked in and turned everything off. It's sort of complicated, but when you do it in a certain order .... Well, never mind; I can't explain the details.
"But when I came away I left the site turned off!"
"Then they'll find out!" Magda exclaimed. "They service those sites all the time-you see the helicopters taking off from the airport!"
"Yes, of course," Danta said, staring miserably down at his hands. "And I can feel that they'll find out soon. I had a reason for doing what I did, I'm sure of that. But I'll be radiated if I can remember what it was!"
"You're shaking, baby" Magda said. "Here. Let me wind you down." She rose and began to strip off her towel.
"Uh-uh," Danty sighed. "It goes on."
"What comes next?"
"I'm not sure. I only feel I have to be somewhere-out by the scrap yards on the west end of town. I'll know the spot when I get there." He checked his watch. "In fact it's about time I got started."
"Have some pot, at least-or a trank, if you're really in a hurry!"
"No, I daren't risk it. I have to be as keyed up as I can."
She stared at him for a long moment. Before she could say anything else, however, he had read her mind.
"You think I'm going to burn myself out, don't you?"
She gave a nod. A very slight nod, as though limiting the gesture could soften the truth behind it.
"Yes: Yes, I think so too," Danty muttered. "But not doing what I feel I have to do-that would be worse." A faint smile followed the words. "But thank you anyhow. If there wasn't someone I could talk to, someone, who cares about me, I'd have gone insane long ago."
He rose, stretching. "Although it's arguable, I guess," he added, "that I already am crazy. Poor Magdal"
"What?"
"'Poor Magdal' I said. Landed with one case for which you can't see any hopeful outcome!"
She pondered that, then shook her head. "No, that's not true. You may burn yourself out, that's a fact. But it would be a very special kind of burning. Goodbye, Danty."