"Chapter 08" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gordon Dickson - Forever Man)

C H A P T E R
8







SHE LIKED WALNUTS, SLEEPING LATE IN TM MORNING, ALMOST
any chicken dish, horseback riding poetry, candlelight, Mo
zart and Prokcfiev among classical composers, Degas and
Chagall among classical painters-also the pointillist painters
in general. She did not like green peppers, steak (much), most
abstract art, music playing while she worked-or any distrac
tion, however slight, from the task at hand-and any failure
to get things correct.
She also, Jim thought, was in love with Raoul but recog
nized the emotion as a hopeless one. If she was in love, it was
with the image of a man she had largely fashioned for herself
from the sound of his voice and the choice of the poetry he
quoted.All these understandings came to Jim little by little as
he and Mary worked together, or were worked together under
the direction and treatments of the staff of Amos. They came
not as something directly sought for by Mary, Amos, or even
by himself, but as inevitable bits of knowledge unavoidably
attached to information about her understanding of Penard and
her own field of work-all of which it was necessary that he
come to know.
The result was that somewhere along in the process he
found he had completely ceased to dislike her. He still felt no
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THE FOREVER MAN l 87
great kinship for her, but there was a sympathy for her in him that he would not have thought possible before he staged the sit-in in Mollen's outer office.
What she had deduced about him he had no idea and felt that he would rather not know. At least, he felt he could trust her to keep the information to herself, as he would keep the information he had gained about her to himself.
It was a silent pact that both recognized and which drew them closer together. Another cause for a bond between them grew from their habit of having lunch together-just the two of them. The announced reason for this, by Mary, was so she could continue briefing Jim on some of the matters that were secret even from Amos and his staff. The unofficial reason, clearly understood by Jim, was to give them both a break from the company of Neiss, who, though he probably could not help it seemed to have an irritating effect on anyone with whom he came in contact.
This personality quirk in Neiss was one of the topics they talked about, one day in the third week of their lunching together in Mary's quarters, which were spacious enough, and evidently designed to be able to, hold official entertainment functions.
" . . . All he has to do," said Mary, "is stop pushing people around for five minutes. Give them a chance to relax."
"He doesn't dare, I think," said Jim. "I'll bet he'd scare himself to death if he didn't keep the pressure on himself, as well as on everybody else, all the time. My guess is he doesn't feel safe unless he's being aggressive."
"A little aggressiveness is all to the good in just about everyone," said Mary. "A little more than a little, you can put up with. But he'll wear you down, just defending yourself."
"Unless he wears himself down first," said Jim. "You're the one who gets the brunt of it."
"Because I'm a woman," said Mary moodily.
"Because you're his superior," said Jim. "I think it's more than that, than your being a woman."
"Because I'm a woman and his superior," said Mary. "One compounds the other as far as he's concerned. But you seem to be able to disarm him, almost. He picks on you, but only as if from a sense of duty."
"I let a lot of what he does bounce off. That robs him of the