"Dick,_Philip_K._The Man Who Japed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dick Phillip K)

"But in dying they make an important point. Don't you think so? Maybe not." She reflected. "Myron Mavis made a point, too. Not a very different point. And you must see something in what Gates and Sugermann are doing; you keep going out there again and again. You were there last night."
He nodded. "I was."
"What did Mrs. Birmingham say?"
Without particular emotion he answered: "A juvenile saw me, and I'm down for Wednesday's block meeting."
"Because you went there? They never reported it before."
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"Maybe they never saw me before."
"Do you know about afterward? Did the juvenile see that?" "Let's hope not," he said. "It's in the paper."
He snatched up the paper. It was in the paper, and it was on page one. The headlines were large.

STREITER STATUE DESECRATED
VANDALS IN PARK
INVESTIGATION UNDER WAY

"That was you," Janet said tonelessly.
"It was," he agreed. He read the headlines again. "It really was me. And it took an hour to do. I left the paint can on a bench. They probably found it."
"That's mentioned in the article. They noticed the statue this morning around six A.M., and they found the paint can at six-thirty."
"What else did they find?"
"Read it," Janet said.
Spreading the paper out flat on the table, he read it.

STREITER STATUE DESECRATED
VANDALS IN PARK
INVESTIGATION UNDER WAY
Newer York, Oct. 8 (T-M). Police are investigating
the deliberate mutilation of the official statue of
Major Jules Streiter, the founder of Moral Reclama-
tion and the guiding leader of the revolution of
1985. Located in the Park of the Spire, the monu-
ment, a life-size statue of bronzed plastic, was
struck from the original mold created by the foun-
der's friend and life-long companion, Pietro Buetello
in March of the year 1990. The mutilation, des-
cribed by police as deliberate and systematic, ap-
parently took place during the night. The Park of
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the Spire is never closed to the public, since it
represents the moral and spiritual center of Newer
York.

"The paper was downstairs when I got home," Janet said. "As always. With the mail. I read it while I was eating dinner."
"It's easy to see why you're upset."
"Because of that? I'm not upset because of that. All they can do is unlease us, fine us, send you to prison for a year."
"And bar our families from Earth."
Janet shrugged. "We'd live. They'd live. I've been thinking about it; I've had three hours and a half here alone in the apartment. At first I was-" She pondered. "Well, it was hard to believe. But this morning we both knew something had happened; there was the mud and grass on your shoes, and the red paint. And nobody saw you."
"A juvenile saw something."
"Not that. They'd have picked you up. It must have seen something else."
Allen said: "I wonder how long it'll be."
"Why should they find out? They'll think it's some person who lost his lease, somebody who's been forced back to the colonies. Or a noose."
"I hate that word."