"Stephen Goldin - The Last Ghost & Other Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

transit between stores with parcels under their arms
He blinked and looked again. There was only the alien city, sitting squat and silent, waiting, ever waiting.
Silent. No movement, no sound, no shadows.
With shaking hands, Ryan practically tore the communicator from his pocket. He let his trembling fingers
caress its rectangular form for a moment, then put in another call to the ship. "This is Ryan calling
Java-10. I've just experienced a hallucination." He went on briefly to describe what had appeared to him
for just a second outside the window.
"Interesting," mused the computer. "This correlates with reports of other hallucinations observed by your
predecessors. Whatever happened to them is just now starting to happen to you. You must be doubly
cautious from now on."
Ryan sat down on a step to regain his composure. He wished that his partner, Bill Tremain, had been
allowed to accompany him on this mission. He and Bill had been a team ever since training school.
Together, they had scouted over thirty worlds, facing the unknown side by side. He wouldn't be feeling
so lonely now, he knew, if Bill were here with him. But the computer didn't want to risk more personnel
than was absolutely necessary. Besides, all previous explorations had been made by teams of two or
more, and they had all failed; perhaps a single man stood a better chance.
A movement caught the corner of Ryan's eye. He whirled his head quickly to see what looked like a
human figure run under the stairs beneath him and vanish. A red-headed figure. Bill Tremain's figure. And
that was patently ridiculous, because Bill Tremain was back on board the ship.
Nevertheless, Ryan walked slowly back down the stairs to investigate. There was, of course, nobody
there; the wall beneath the stairs was smooth and hard, with no hiding place for any running person. No,
the building was deserted except for him. The silence attested to that.
"Looking for something, Jeff?" came a voice from above.

#

The man who stood on the third landing was not Ryan's partner. Instead, it was Richard Bael, an old
acquaintance from Academy days. "Oh, don't worry/' Bael smiled. "I'm quite real."
That made sense. Bael had been one of the first sixteen to enter the city. "How did you get there?" Ryan
stammered.
"Oh," Bael shrugged, "there are ways." He started to walk easily down the steps. "You'll learn, after a
week or two."
"I don't plan on staying that long," Ryan answered defensively. He tried reaching slowly for the
communicator in his pocket, but Bael spotted the motion.
"Oh, are you going to call your ship? May I say a few words to them?"
"They'd love to hear from you," Ryan said. "What happened to your own com unit?"
"I must have set it down someplace and then forgotten about it," Bael said with a wave of his hand. "I
didn't really think it was all that important." He reached Ryan's side and held out his hand. Ryan gave him
the communicator.
"Hello up there, this is Richard Bael calling. Can you hear me?"
"Yes," answered the unemotional voice of Java-10.
"I have a delayed report to make in connection with my exploration of this city. I assume you've got all
your tapes going, ready to record every word of it."
"Correct."
"All right, then, here it is: Screw you." He switched off the set and handed it back to Ryan. "I've always
wanted to do that, but I never had the nerve before," he grinned good-naturedly.
Ryan snatched the communicator from his hand, slightly horrified at Bael's action. "This is Ryan calling
Java-10. Do you read me?"
"Affirmative. Is Bael really there with you?" The question was flat rather than incredulous.
"He seems to be."