"021 - Dick, Philip K - Counter Clock World v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dick Phillip K)

"Somewhere in your books, articles, religious pamphlets, city records--"
."Our job here at the Library," Appleford said, "is not to study and/or memorize data; it is to expunge it."
There was silence.
"Well," Gantrix admitted, "you've stated your position with clarity and admirable brevity. So we're to assume that that fact, the location of the Anarch's body, has been expunged; as a f act it no longer exists."
"It has undoubtedly been unwritten," Appleford said. "Or at least such is a reasonable presumption . . . and in accord with Library policy."
Gantrix said, "And you won't even check. You won't research it, even for a sizeable donation." Bureaucracy, he thought; it maddened him; it was insane.
"Good day, Mr. Gantrix," the librarian said, and hung up.
For a time Carl Gantrix sat in silence, keeping himself inert. Controlling his emotions.
He at last picked up the vidphone receiver once more and this time dialed the Free Negro Municipality. "I want to speak to the Very Honorable Ray Roberts," he told the operator in Chicago.
"That party can only be reached by--"
"I have the necessary code," Gantrix said, and thereupon divested himself of it. He felt weary and defeated . . . and he dreaded Ray Roberts' reaction. But we can't give up, he realized. We knew from the start that that bureaucrat Appleford wouldn't research the matter for us; we knew we'd have to break into the Library and do it ourselves.
That fact is there in the Library somewhere, he said to himself. That's probably the _only_ place it is, the only source from which we can get that information.
And there was not much time left, according to Ray Roberts' arcane calculations. The Anarch Peak would be returning to life any day, now.
It was a highly dangerous situation.









4


If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.
--St. Thomas Aquinas



As soon as the roby Carl Gantrix Junior had cleared out of his office, Doug Appleford pressed the intercom button which connected him with his superior, Chief Librarian Mavis McGuire.
"You know what just now happened?" he said. "Someone representing that Udi cult got a robot in here and began planting hostile hardware all over my office. It has left." He added, "Possibly I should have called the city police. Technically, I still could; the scanner I keep in here recorded the incident, so We have the evidence if we want to seek recourse."
Mavis had her usual accosting, bleak expression, the dead-calm quality which generally preceded a tirade. Especially at this time of day--early in the morning--she was most irritable.
Over the years Appleford had learned to live with her, so to speak. As an administrator she was superb. She had energy; she was accurate; she always--and rightly so--assumed final authority; he had never known Mavis to pass the poscred back, when it was handed to her . . . as in this case. Never in his most distorted dreams had he envisioned trying to supplant her; he knew, rationally and coldly, that he did not possess her ability; he had enough talent to act as her subordinate--and do the job well--but that was all. He respected her and he was afraid of her, a lethal combination in regard to any aspirations he might have had to seek a rung higher in the Library's hierarchy. Mavis McGuire was the boss and he liked it that way; he liked it now, being able to drop this into her lap.
Mavis said, her mouth twisting, "Udi. That abomination. Yes; I realize Ray Roberts is making a pile out here; I expected they'd come sniThng around here. I assume you expelled the hostile hardware."
"Absolutely," Appleford assured her. It still lay on the carpeted floor of his office, where the file had ejected it.
"What specifically," Mavis said in her low, near-whisper voice, "were they after?"
"The burial site of the Anarch Peak."
"Do we have that information?"
Appleford said, "I didn't bother to look it up."
"I'll check with the Council of Erads," Mavis said, "and find out if they want that fact released; I'll check on their policy regarding this. Right now I have other business; you'll excuse me." She then rang off.
Miss Tomsen buzzed him. "A Mrs. Hermes and an Officer Tinbane to see you, sir. They have no appointment."
"Tinbane," he echoed. He had always liked the young police officer. A man as honestly, reputably intent on his tasks as was Appleford: they had something in common. Mrs. Hermes; he did not know her. Possibly it involved someone refusing to turn over a book to the Library; Tinbane had tracked such cupidity down in past times. "Send them in," he decided. Possibly Mrs. Hermes was a Hoarder--someone who refused to give up a book whose time had come.
Officer Tinbane, in uniform, entered, and with him appeared a sweet-looking girl with astonishingly long dark hair. She seemed ill-at-ease and dependent on the police officer.
"Goodbye," Appleford greeted them graciously. "Please sit down." He rose to offer Mrs. Hermes a chair.
"Mrs. Hermes," Tinbane said, "is after information about the Anarch Peak. You have anything not yet eradicated that would help her?"
"Probably," Appleford said. This seems to be the topic of the day, he reflected. But these two people, in contradistinction to Carl Gantrix, appeared to have no connection with Roberts, and this altered his attitude. "Anything in particular?" he asked the girl in a kindly fashion, wanting to reassure her; she was obviously easily intimidated.
The girl said in a soft little voice, "My husband just wanted me to find out all I could."
"My suggestion," Appleford told her, "is that rather than plowing through manuscripts and books you consult an expert in contemporary religious history." A man who, by the way, enjoyed an attractive woman--as Appleford did. He toyed with a ballpoint pen, for dramatic emphasis. "As a matter of fact I personally know more than a little about the late Anarch." He leaned back in his swivel chair, folded his hands, observed the inlaid ceiling of his office.