"Philip Jose Farmer - Riverworld 3 - The Dark Design" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

only as X?
He struggled against the wet, cold mists, as ethereal yet as strong as the
magic
chains which had bound the monster wolf Fenrir until Ragnarok, the doom of the
gods.
Loga said, "We would have caught you, anyway. You see,every space in the
restoration bubble-the place where you unaccountably awakened during the
preresurrection phase-has an automatic counter. Any candidate who has a higher
than average number of deaths is a subject for study sooner or later. Usually
later, since we're short-handed.
"We had no idea it was you who had racked up the staggering number of seven
hundred and seventy-seven deaths. Your space in the PR bubble was empty when
we
looked at it during our statistical investigation. The two technicians who had
seen you when you woke up in the PR chamber identified you by your . . .
photograph.
"We set the resurrector so that the next time your body was to be recreated,
an
alarm would notify us, and we would bring you here to this place."
But Burton had not died again. Somehow, they had located him while he was
alive.
Though he had run away again, he had been caught. Or had he? Perhaps, as he
ran
through the night, he had been killed by lightning. And they were waiting for
him in the PR bubble. That vast chamber which he supposed was somewhere deep
under the surface of this planet or in the tower of the polar sea.
Loga said, "We've made a thorough search of your body. We have also screened
every component of your . . . psychomorph. Or aura, whichever word you
prefer."
He pointed at the flashing, whirling globe above the Burton who sat in the
chair
facing him.
Then the Ethical did a strange thing.
He turned and looked out into the mists and pointed at Burton, the watcher.
"We found no clues whatsoever."
The dark figure in the wings chuckled.
The Burton in the pit called out, "You think there are only twelve of you!
There
are thirteen! An unlucky number!"
"It's quality, not quantity, that matters," the thing off-stage said.
"You won't remember a thing that occurs down here after we send you back to
the
Rivervalley," Loga said.
The Burton in the chair said something that he had not said in the original
inquisition.
"How can you make me forget?"
"We have run off your memory as if it were a tape recording," Thanabur said.
He
talked as if he were lecturing. Or was he warning Burton because he was X?
"Of course, it took a long time to run your memory track for the seven years