"Robert A. Heinlein - Magic, Inc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

I put the gun away and went about my work, waiting on two customers who came
in just as Mr Nasty Business left. But I will admit that I was worried. A
man's reputation is his most valuable asset. I've built up a name, while
still a young man, for dependable products. It was certain that this bird
and his pals would do all they could to destroy that name - which might be
plenty if they were hooked in with black magicians!

Of course the building-materials game does not involve as much magic as
other lines dealing in less durable goods. People like to know, when they
are building a home, that the bed won't fall into the basement some night,
or the roof disappear and leave them out in the rain.

Besides, building involves quite a lot of iron, and there are very few
commercial sorcerers who can cope with cold iron. The few that can are so
expensive it isn't economical to use them in building. Of course if one of
the café-society crowd, or somebody like that, wants to boast that they have
a summerhouse or a swimming pool built entirely by magic, I'll accept the
contract, charging accordingly, and sublet it to one of the expensive,
first-line magicians. But by and large my business uses magic only in the
side issues - perishable items and doodads which people like to buy cheap
and change from time to time.

So I was not worried about magic in my business, but about what magic could
do to my business - if someone set out deliberately to do me mischief. I had
the subject of magic on my mind, anyhow, because of an earlier call from a
chap named Ditworth - not a matter of vicious threats, just a business
proposition that I was undecided about. But it worried me, just the same,

I closed up a few minutes early and went over to see Jedson - a friend of
mine in the cloak-and-suit business. He is considerably older than I am, and
quite a student, without holding a degree, in all forms of witchcraft, white
and black magic, necrology, demonology, spells, charms, and the more
practical forms of divination. Besides that, Jedson is a shrewd, capable man
in every way, with a long head on him. I set a lot of store by his advice.

I expected to find him in his office, and more or less free, at that hour,
but he wasn't. His office boy directed me up to a room he used for sales
conferences. I knocked and then pushed the door.

Hello, Archie,' he called out as soon as he saw who it was. Come on in. I've
got something.' And he turned away.

I came in and looked around. Besides Joe Jedson there was a handsome, husky
woman about thirty years old in a nurse's uniform, and a fellow named August
Welker, Jedson's foreman. He was a handy all-around man with a magician's
licence, third class. Then I noticed a fat little guy, Zadkiel Feldstein,
who was agent for a good many of the second-rate magicians along the street,
and some few of the first-raters. Naturally, his religion prevented him from
practising magic himself, but, as I understand it, there was no theological
objection to his turning an honest commission. I had had dealings with him;