"Brian Lumley - E-Branch 1 - Defilers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

more able to concentrate,- his weariness, more mental than physical, was lifting moment by moment.
Which made him wonder out loud:
"That office of mine. I sometimes feel isolated in there. Is it my imagination, do you think, or
has it got smaller over the years?"
"The whole world is smaller," Millie answered. "A touch of claustrophobia, maybe?"

Trask shook his head. "I've been down in the Perchorsk Complex under the Urals, the site of the
Russian Gate. I know what claustrophobia isl If you ever get the chance to see that place-which I
hope you never do-you'll see what I mean. No, it's not claustrophobia, nothing physical, anyway.
Though certainly I sense things closing in on me ... or on us." His sigh, involuntary though it
was, gave a lot away.
"You're carrying a lot of weight," she said. "Stressed out, and no way to relieve the tension."
"You'd think that being an empath of a sort," he answered, "I'd be able to figure that out for
myself."
"Knowing it is one thing," she told him. "But admitting it is something else. Once you admit it
you can do something about fixing it. There are ways to let off steam, I'm told."
He looked at her-really looked at her-and said, "You were never married, were you, Millie?"
Now it was her turn to sigh. 'That's one of the ways," she said. And: "No, I never was. But you've
known me almost as long as I've known me, so you know that. And you know why."
He nodded and said, "These so-called 'talents' of ours, of course. It's the same for quite a few
of us. lan Goodly because he wouldn't want to know in advance how things would work out-between
himself and a woman, I mean- and he certainly wouldn't want to know when harm was coming her way
and there was nothing he could do to avoid it! The future, as he's frequently wont to remind us,
is a devious place."
"And so are other people's minds," Millie said. "I've been out with men, dated men, and behind the
smiles all they've been worried about is how much my meal and the wine was costing, and what
they'd get back for their investment. I've bedded men-oh yes, a few-who were mainly concerned
about the size of their own egos." "Only their egos?"
And Millie shrugged. "That, too," she said. "It seems that male egos and you-know-whats go hand in
hand, er, and no double entendre intended! Oh yes, I know: that if I didn't know things would be
easier. But if I see a certain look in someone's eyes, or maybe detect a certain tone of voice,
then I've just got to know what's going on in there. The temptation is irresistible. Any tele-path
who tells you different is a liar. We may not want to look, but we just can't help ourselves."
"I know," Trask told her ruefully. "I have problems of my own, remember?" "That thing of yours
must be a real killer," she said. "I mean, everybody has their little secrets. But the one you
love really shouldn't have. So how do you avoid getting hurt when a special someone slips up and
tells you a lie, even a white lie, or simply covers up for something he or she promised and forgot
to do, or-"
"Or, or, or," said Trask. "Precisely. But I've learned to differentiate between


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NECROSCOPE: DEFILERS
innocent and deliberate deceit. There are degrees of truth, you know? But yes, I know what you
mean. It's never easy."
"And yet you were married, and to a telepath at that."
Trask thought about that, and for the first time in a long time found himself able to talk about
Zek. "She never lied," he said. "If she couldn't tell me the truth she said nothing."
"But she could read your mind."
Trask nodded. "Funnily enough, she never read anything she thought shouldn't be in there. That's