"Fritz Leiber - The Number of the Beast" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

Fritz Leiber




“I wish,” said the Young Captain, police chief of High Chicago, the turbulent satellite that hangs over the
merid-ian of the mid-western groundside city, “I wish that some-times the telepathic races of the Galaxy
weren’t such consistent truth-tellers and silence-keepers.”

“Your four suspects are all telepaths?” the- Old Lieu-tenant asked.

“Yes. I also wish I had more than half an how to decide which one to accuse; But Earth-side has
muscled into the case and the pressure is on. If I can’t reason it out, I must make a guess. A bare
half-hour they give me.”

“Then perhaps you shouldn’t waste it with a pensioned-off old louey.”

The Young Captain shook his head decisively. “No. You think. You have time to now.”

The Old Lieutenant smiled. “Sometimes I wish I hadn’t.

And I doubt if I can give you any special angles on tele-

paths, Jim. It’s true I’ve lately been whiling away the

time on informal study of alien thought systems with

Khla-Khla the Martian, but—“

“I didn’t come to you looking for a specialist on tele-pathy,” the Young Captain asserted sharply.

“Very well then, Jim. You know what you’re doings Let’s hear your case. And give me background. I
don’t keep up with the news.’

The Young Captain looked skeptical. “Everyone in High Chicago has heard about the murder—not two
furlongs from here—of the representative of the Arcturian peace party.’

“I haven’t,” the Old Lieutenant said. “Who are the Arcturians? I tell you, for an oldster like me, the Now
is just one more historical period. Better consult someone else, Jim.”

“No. The Arcturians are the first non-related humanoid race to turn up in the Galaxy. Non-related to
Earth humans, that is. True, they have three eyes, and six fin-gers on each hand, but they are hairless
mammalian bipeds just the same. One of their females is the current burlesque sensation of the Star and
Garter.”

“The police found that a good spot to keep their eyes on in my day too,” the Old Lieutenant recalled,
nodding. “Are the Arcturians telepaths?”