"Brian Lumley - Psychomech 01 - Psychomech" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

Garrison laughed. ‘I like him already.’
Koenig also laughed. ‘Oh, you will like him. I believe you are much alike.’
‘What does he do?’ Garrison asked. ‘I mean, I know he’s an industrialist, but—’ He paused, listened to the chink of
glasses as the Kellnerin delivered their drinks. After she had gone away he leaned across and whispered: ‘She’s
pretty, she’s young, and she smiles a lot.’
‘How do you know?’ Koenig whispered back.
‘Only a young, smiling sort of girl could wear that perfume,’ Garrison answered. ‘Also, her thigh where it pressed
against mine was very firm - and very friendly!’
The German laughed and nodded. ‘Again the Colonel is right. He says: "Blindness is only a word for having no
eyesight." And he also says it is too often used as a synonym of idiot or cretin or vegetable. Well, you may be blind,
Corporal Garrison, but you are no vegetable!’
‘You must call me Richard, Willy,’ Garrison laughed out loud.
‘No,’ the German shook his blond head. ‘That would not be right. I am after all merely a gentleman’s gentleman. It
would be to demean you. Nor must I call you Corporal, for that also is to belittle you. You see, I was a Feldwebel! No, I
shall call you sir - when others are listening, anyway.’
Garrison sighed and shook his head in mock despair. ‘Jesus,’ he said, ’no more of that shit! I had all that once today
with Marchant.’
‘Ah?’ Koenig’s eyebrows went up. ‘Yes, I suspected something. Weil, the Colonel is not like that.’
‘You were telling me about him/ Garrison prompted.
Koenig nodded, just as he would if Garrison had sight. ‘I do not think he would mind our discussing him. He was a
Colonel at the end of the war. So many young officers were. I was his youngest non-commissioned officer, his batman
if you like, though in fact I was more his bodyguard. We were members of—’ he paused. ‘The SS.’
‘Remarkable!’ said Koenig. ‘Yes, the SS. Does that strike terror into your heart?’
‘No, should it?
‘Many people are still foolish about it - especially Germans!’
‘Well, I’m a Military Policeman - for a week or two more, anyway. And I’ve read a great deal about the SS. There
were good and bad. There are in all armies, all corps and regiments.’
Koenig grinned, his amusement finding its way into his voice. ‘The Royal Military Police and the SS are two very
different concepts, I assure you!’ he said, his words slow and precise.
‘Oh, I know that,’ Garrison answered. ‘But I’ve a feeling that you and the Colonel... well, that you weren’t all
jackboots and Mausers.’
‘We were excellent soldiers, certainly,’ Koenig answered. ‘As to whether we were good or bad men, would it sound
too - how do you say, trite? - to say that we, the Colonel and I, did not relish our duties? Yet it is true. Fortunately
Colonel Schroeder’s was an active command. In fact we were permanently in action, on one front or another. It was his
punishment, I suppose. You see, he came of very bad stock.’
Garrison’s face took on a puzzled look. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘In the First World War his grandfather was General Count Max von Zundenberg. And his grandmother was
Jewish!’
Garrison grinned again and tasted his drink. ‘That might account for his tax-dodging, eh?’ Then the grin slipped
from his face. He sipped again at his drink. ‘That’s a very poor brandy,’ he said.
 ‘But you like it?’
‘Indeed I do. I spent two years in Cyprus as a Lance-Corporal. Could hardly afford to drink anything else. Why, you
might say that as a drinking man, which I’m not, I was reared on bad brandy! We Lance-Corporals used to drink
two-star Haggipavlu. A gallon of the stuff would only cost a couple of pounds!’
‘I know,’ Koenig laughed a deep laugh. ‘That’s why I ordered the worst brandy in the house. Especially for you.’
Garrison tasted his food. Meat in a spicy sauce, with mushroom. He smiled for a moment, then frowned. His
handsome brow wrinkled as he turned his black lenses on the German. ‘You’ve done your homework well, Willy
Koenig. What else do you know about me?’
‘Almost everything. I know you had a fairly rough time as a boy, and that you seem to have come through
unscathed. I also know that from now on it won’t be near)y so rough.’