"Joe Haldeman - Buying Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

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 BUYING TIME - Joe Haldeman


like it?"
"The face? It's … different." The back of her head was shaved as well, and decorated with a holo tattoo,
gargoyle face with pearl teeth and shining ruby eyes. "That's the style now?"
"Not yet, dove."
Exactly one buttock was bare, healthy pink over hard muscle, but with dozens of puncture marks on the
side. "What're you poking?"
"Mostly grief; a little cream tonight. Want some?"
"You know I'm not … "I shrugged.
"People change." She took my arm and steered me toward the bar. A nipple brushed my bare bicep and
immediately sprang up hard. She giggled. "That's the cream. You should try a little. What it does to
men … "
"I've seen what it does. No thanks."
"Regular men. Not the bangoff creeps." Terminal cream addiction leads to pretty bizarre behavior. "Now
you're gonna tell me not to poke."
"Your business. I never did understand poking, though, not when you can afford to pop or punch."
"Yeah, well. You don't understand pain."
"Tell me about it." We came up to the bar and I pointed at a small box of Foster's. "Spent nine months
last year in a body cast, broken back and neck, crushed rib cage. Liver, spleen, and heart transplants. I do
know pain, Claudia."
"Not the same. Not like wanting it."
"Guess not." The lager was so cold it hurt my teeth. "How much grief?"
"Forty if I cocktail it. Fifty straight."
"Good God, Claudia." Fifty-grief would be lethal to a nonaddict.
She laughed. "You're such a plank, Dal." She stirred through a silver bowl of poppers, stamps, and
needles and pulled out a ten-cream. "Cream's hard to find once the party gets going. Be a gent here." She
unripped my breast pocket and slipped an ampule in. "I'll come get it later." She gave my crotch a
friendly squeeze and glided off. The bartender took a sudden interest in rearranging his bottles.
She stopped abruptly and walked back, standing at an awkward distance. "Uh, you just got out?"
"Tuesday."

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 BUYING TIME - Joe Haldeman



"Need some?"
"Don't think so. Thanks for asking." Delicate business. I was almost broke, but you had to be careful
about the markers you put out. Claudia wouldn't have let herself get addicted unless she was going in
pretty soon. So if I took her money now, I'd be giving it back in a few months, technically in defiance of
the Stileman contract. That would unnecessarily complicate things, so early in my own tenth career.
Claudia and I had lived together in New Orleans about forty years ago. She used to share my caution
toward drugs. They didn't have cream back then, though, and grief was a sure killer.
Nowadays, a lot of people let themselves become addicts before they check in for rejuvenation. The
Stileman Process does cure you of physical addiction, but if it's a manifestation of some deep
psychological problem, you'll of course still have the problem when you get out.