"Chalker, Jack L - G.o.d. Inc. 2 - The Shadow Dancers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

startin' to get used to talkin' like a black Elmer Fudd.
"People leak things for their own advantage. If one of 'em gets concerned with a
bigwig he's trying to impress and gets pressed on what's being done about this
security threat, he might blurt it all out just to make an impression, or leak
it if there's rumors going around that he hasn't been very effective. Now, we're
going to block out that whole time line from the Labyrinth, so nobody and no
messages go in or out until you're safe, and anybody who leaves here not on our
team will be monitored like a hawk, but these are big shots used to intelligence
work. It's an extra added pain in the ass."
I couldn't help but notice that the Security Committee was all male. In fact, I
found out when I pressed, just about all the senior officers were men. It wasn't
that this place was out-and-out sexist, but women somehow never made it to the
top spots. Some of it was that these guys tonight were mostly in their seventies
and maybe had a hundred years or more before there was much of an openin', and
the Chairman of the Board, they said, was a hundred and five and nowhere near
retirin', but I think there was more. This sorta trickles down, too. If women
aren't in top spots, they don't tend to be treated as good further down. Kinda
like Russia, where all women are equal and work at jobs, but never get high up
in the government 'cept as the head of culture or arts or somethin' like that,
and are still expected to come home nights and clean house and cook dinner.
Here, nobody really had to work, and a lot of women didn't, stayin' home with
the kids and stuff. Lots of the artists were women, I found out, and dancers and
entertainers, and lots in the common classes had all sorts of regular jobs, but
almost never on top unless they was the absolute best. Nobody seemed to care
'bout this, though. They all had one of them religions that believed in
reincarnation, and you was a man one life, a woman the next, and so on. Me, I
was thinkin' I might like to be a housewife and full-time mother to some kids,
'specially if I had lots of money, but I sure as hell would hate to be required
to do that.
They trooped in, one at a time, and got greeted like one of them diplomatic
receptions. More of them beautiful golden people, all of 'em, only Iookin' a
little older and maybe a little shiftier, like politicians or salesmen. Mayar
Eldrith, our host, was tall and strong and real slick lookin'; he brought his
wife, Eyai, who looked somethin' like some Hawaiian goddess. She had that
special smile and way of talkin' that all politicians' wives seem to have, and
Mayar talked like he was some big shot Senator runnin' for office. Real smooth
voice and delivery.
He was followed by Hanrin Sabuuk, who looked and sounded enough like Mayar to be
his brother, then Dringa Lakuka, who looked older and wiser and was a real quiet
type but with real bright eyes. You got the feelin' he was some god slummin' and
havin' a ball doin' it. Then there was Basuti Alimati, the youngest and newest
member- only fifty-seven and lookin' a good thirty-who seemed real stuffy and
businesslike. They told us he was the only one of them who never married and
never seemed to fool around, neither. They wasn't very hung up on sex here-you
could have as many wives, or even husbands, as you could talk into it, swing
with either or both sexes, and have unlimited lovers on the side. This guy,
though, was never even known to swing with himself.
The last one and just slightly older than "young" Basuti, was Mukasa Lamdukur.
He looked much like the others and was maybe the most human of the bunch, and he
was the only one who brought along others, much to Sam's and Aldrath's distress.