"Cory Doctorow - The Super Man and Bugout" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dodd Christina)

"Good food," he said.

#

An hour later, the pretty waitress had cleared away the platters and brought
fresh pitchers, and Hershie's tights felt a little tighter. One of the Quakers,
an ancient, skinny man with thin grey hair and sharp, clever features stood up
and tapped his beer-mug. Gradually, conversation subsided.

"Thank you," he said. "My name is Stewart Pocock, and I'm here from the Circle
of Friends. I'd like us all to take a moment to say a silent thanks for the
wonderful food we've all enjoyed."

There was a nervous shuffling, and then a general bowing of heads and mostly
silence, broken by low whispers.

"Thomas, I thought _you_ called this meeting," Hershie whispered.

"I did. These guys always do this. Control freaks. Don't worry about it," he
whispered back.

"Thank you all. We took the liberty of drawing up an agenda for this meeting."

"They _always_ do this," Thomas said.

The Quakers led them in a round of introductions, which came around to Hershie.
"I'm, uh, The Super Man. I guess most of you know that, right?" Silence. "I'm
really looking forward to working on this with you all." A moment of silence
followed, before the next table started in on its own introductions.

#

"Time," Louise Pocock said. Blissfully. At last. The agenda had ticks next to
INTRODUCTION, BACKGROUND, STRATEGY, THE DAY, SUPPORT AND ORGANISING and
PUBLICITY. Thomas had hardly spoken a word through the course of the meeting.
Even Hershie's alien buttocks were numb from sitting.

"It's time for the closing circle. Please, everybody, stand up and hold hands."
Many of the assembled didn't bother to stifle their groans. Awkwardly, around
the tables and the knapsacks, they formed a rough circle and took hands. They
held it for an long, painful moment, then gratefully let go.

They worked their way upstairs and outside. The wind had picked up, and it blew
Hershie's cape out on a crackling vertical behind him, so that it caught many of
the others in the face as they cycled or walked away.

"Supe, let's you and me grab a coffee, huh?" Thomas said, without any spin on it
at all, so that Hershie knew that it wasn't a casual request.

"Yeah, sure."