"Stephen Goldin - Finish Line" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

"You must be Bred deVrie," she blurted out.

The man shrugged. "We all must be somebody, I suppose."

It was only after staring at him for several seconds that Shino realized why Bred
deVrie had gained such a reputation for eccentricity. He was almost the total
antithesis of everything the Society male should be. Fashion called for men to
shave a part at least three centimeters wide from front to back of their heads and
have it tattooed in outrageous designs; Bred's natural brown hair was unparted,
cut fairly short by contemporary standards, and tended to curl unexpectedly
down onto his forehead. Small goatees were the rage, yet Bred's beard and
mustache were full and of a reddish tinge. Society men were absolute peacocks,
adorned in bright clothes and flashy jewelry; Bred wore no jewelry and was
dressed in a spacer uniform of glossy black. And… he was wearing an odd
appurtenance across his eyes and the front of his nose. It hooked behind his ears
and seemed to change the whole nature of his face.

Bred caught her staring and smiled. "I'll bet you've never seen anything like

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Laser Book 45 - Finish Line by Stephen Goldin (v1.0) (html)


these before," he said, removing the awkward contraption.

"I… I must admit I haven't. What is it?"

"They were called glasses or spectacles several centuries ago and were worn by
people with defective vision. The glass was ground into lenses to compensate for
natural inadequacies in the eyes. That was long before optical microsurgery
could correct such things at birth."

"Is there something wrong with your eyes?" Shino asked, wondering at her own
concern.

"Space, no. I just like them because they look so terribly decadent." He grinned
widely and donned the glasses again. They made his eyes appear very large
indeed. "But you didn't really come here to talk about my glasses, did you?"

Shino felt rather foolish. Of course not. She had come to talk about the
Scavenger Hunt; it was the only subject anyone was talking about these days.
Especially on Midway, where all the contestants were stopping for the Midway
Ball during the Hunt. It made absolutely no sense whatsoever to stop the Hunt
right in the middle to have a party; but then, Society's events rarely made sense.

"No," she blushed, "I came to find out how you're doing in the Hunt."

"I'm going to lose, if that's what you mean."