"Frank Herbert - The Nothing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

wiggled. 'There's a cloudy area in the near future beyond which we can't see. None of us.'
That scared me. A prescient may give you the creeps, but it's nice to know there's a future
into which someone can see. It was as if there suddenly wasn't any future-period. I began to
cry a little.
'And our children will be Nothings,' I said.
'Well, not exactly,' said Williams. 'Some of them, maybe, but we've taken the trouble of
comparing your gene lines-yours and Claude's. You've a good chance of having offspring who
will be prescient or telepathic or both. A better than seventy percent chance.' His voice got
pleading. 'The world's going to need that chance.'
Claude came over and put a hand on my shoulder. It sent a delicious tingle up my spine.
Suddenly, I got a little flash of his thoughts-a picture of us kissing. I'm not really a tele, but
like I said, sometimes I get glimmers.
Claude said, 'Okay. I guess there's no sense fighting the inevitable. We'll get married.'
No more argument. We all traipsed into another room and there was a preacher with
everything ready for us, even the ring. Another prescient. He'd come more than a hundred
miles to perform the ceremony, he said.


Afterward, I let Claude kiss me once. I was having trouble realizing that I was married. Mrs.
Claude Williams. But that's the way it is with the inevitable, I guess.
The old man took my arm then and said there was one small precaution. I'd be going off the
grounds from time to time and there'd always be the chance of some unethical tele picking my
brains.
They put me under an anesthetube and when I came out of it I had a silver grid in my skull.
It itched some, but they said that it would go away. I'd heard of this thing. They called it a
blanket.
Mensor Williams said, 'Now go home and get your things. You won't need to tell your
parents any more than that you have a government job. Come back as soon as you're able.'
'Get me a 'porter,' I said.
'The grounds are gridded against teleporters,' he said. 'I'll have to send you in a jet buggy.'
And so he did.
I was home in ten minutes.
I went up the stairs to my house. It was after nine o'clock by then. My father was waiting
inside the door.
'A fine time for an eighteen-year-old girl to be coming home!' he shouted and he made a
tele stab at my mind to see what I'd been up to. These teles and their ethics! Well, he ran
smack dab into the blanket and maybe you think that didn't set him back on his heels. He got
all quiet suddenly.
I said, 'I have a government job. I just came back for my things.' Time enough to tell them
about the marriage later. They'd have kicked up a fine rumpus if I'd said anything then.
Mama came in and said, 'My little baby with a government job! How much does it pay?'
I said, 'Let's not be vulgar.'
Papa sided with me. 'Of course not, Hazel,' he said. 'Leave the kid alone. A government job!
What do you know! Those things pay plenty. Where is it, baby?'
I could see him wondering how much he could tap me for to pay his bills and I began to
wonder if I'd have any money at all to keep up the pretense. I said, 'The job's at Sonoma
Preserve.'
 Papa said, 'What they need with a pyro up there?'
I got a brilliant inspiration. I said, 'To keep the Nothings in line. A little burn here, a little
burn there. You know.'