"Robert A. Heinlein - Methuselahs Children" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

designed to do and do it quietly and efficiently. Some good skull sweat in this
one.“
„Yes.“ She was busy then, surfacing, making a radar check, and getting them
back ashore without attracting notice.
When they reached her apartment she put tobacco and drink close to him,
then went to her retiring room, threw off her street clothes and put on a soft
loose robe that made her look even smaller and younger than she had
looked before. When she rejoined Lazarus, he stood up, struck a cigarette for
her, then paused as he handed it to her and gave a gallant and indelicate
whistle.
She smiled briefly, took the cigarette, and sat down in a large chair, pulling
her feet under her. „Lazarus, you reassure me.“
„Don’t you own a mirror, girl?“
„Not that,“ she said impatiently. „You yourself. You know that I have passed
the reasonable life expectancy of our people-I’ve been expecting to die, been
resigned to it, for the past ten years. Yet there you sit . . . years and years
o1der than I am. You give me hope.“
He sat up straight. „You expecting to die? Good grief, girl-you look good for
another century.“
She made a tired gesture. „Don’t try to jolly me. You know that appearance
has nothing to do with it. Lazarus, I don’t want to die!“
Lazarus answered soberly, „I wasn’t trying to kid you, Sis. You simply don’t
look like a candidate for corpse.“
She shrugged gracefully. „A matter of biotechniques. I’m holding my
appearance at the early thirties.“
„Or less, I’d say. I guess I’m not up on the latest dodges, Mary. You heard
me say that I had not attended a get-together for more than a century. As a
matter of fact I’ve been completely out of touch with the Families the whole
time.“
„Really? May I ask why?“
„A long story and a dull one. What it amounts to is that I got bored with them.
I used to be a delegate to the annual meetings. But they got stuffy and set in
their ways-or so it seemed to me. So I wandered off. I spent the Interregnum
on Venus, mostly. I came back for a while after the Covenant was signed but
I don’t suppose I’ve spent two years on Earth since then. I like to move
around.“
Her eyes lit up. „Oh, tell me about it! I’ve never been out in-deep space. Just
Luna City, once.“
„Sure,“ he agreed. „Sometime. But I want to hear more about this matter of
your appearance. Girl, you sure don’t look your age.“
„I suppose not. Or, rather, of course I don’t. As to how it’s done, I can’t tell
you much. Hormones and symbiotics and gland therapy and some
psychotherapy-things like that. What it adds up to is that, for members of the
Families, senility is postponed and that senescence can be arrested at least
cosmetically.“ She brooded for a moment. „Once they thought they were on
the track of the secret of immortality, the true Fountain of Youth. But it was a
mistake. Senility is simply postponed . . . and shortened. About ninety days
from the first clear warning-then death from old age.“ She shivered. „Of
course, most of our cousins don’t wait-a couple of weeks to make certain of
the diagnosis, then euthanasia.“