"Ellen Datlow - The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction" - читать интересную книгу автора (Datlow Ellen)

"What's your name?" he asked.
"Judy."
"I'm Van."
"Hello, Van."
"How about a brandy? Steady you up a little more."
"I don't drink."
"Never?"
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"Vixen does the drinking," she said.
"Ah. The old story- She gets the bubbles, you get her hangovers. I have one like that too, only with him
it's hunan food. He absolutely doesn't give a damn what lobster in hot and sour sauce does to my
digestive system. I hope you pay her back the way she deserves."
Cleo smiled and said nothing.
He was watching her closely. Was he interested, or just being polite to someone who was obviously out
of her depth in a strange milieu? Interested, she decided. He seemed to have accepted that Vixen stuff at
face value.
Be careful now, Cleo warned herself. Trying to pile on convincing-sounding details when you don't really
know what you're talking about is a sure way to give yourself away sooner or later.
The thing to do, she knew, was to establish her credentials without working too hard at it; sit back, listen,
learn how things really operate among these people.
"What do you do up there in Sacramento?"
"Nothing fascinating."
"Poor Judy. Real-estate broker?"
"How'd you guess?"
"Every other woman I meet is a real-estate broker these days. What's Vixen?"
"A lush."
"Not much of a livelihood in that."
Cleo shrugged. "She doesn't need one. The rest of us support her."
"Real estate and what else?"
She hadn't been sure that multiples etiquette in-
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eluded talking about one's alternate selves. But she had come prepared. "Lisa's a landscape architect.
Cleo's into software. We all keep busy."
"Lisa ought to meet Chuck. He's a demon horti-culturalist. Partner in a plant-rental outfit-you know, huge
dracaenas and philodendrons for offices, so much per month, take them away when they start looking
sickly. Lisa and Chuck could talk palms and bromelaids and cacti all night."
"We should introduce them."
"We should, yes."
"But first we have to introduce Van and Judy."
"And then maybe Van and Cleo," he said.
She felt a tremor of fear. Had he found her out so soon? "Why Van and Cleo? Cleo's not here right now.
This is Judy you're talking to."
"Easy. Easy!"
But she was unable to halt. "I can't deliver Cleo to you just like that, you know. She does as she
pleases."
"Easy," he said. "All I meant was, Van and Cleo have something in common. Van's into software, too."
Cleo relaxed. With a little laugh she said, "Oh, not you, too! Isn't everybody nowadays? But I thought
you were something in the academic world. A university professor or something like that."
"I am. At Cal."
"Software?"