"George R. R. Martin - Call Him Moses" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

Call Him Moses
George R.R. Martin
Analog
February, 1978

Rumors were seldom of any concern to Haviland Tuf. For one thing, he seldom heard any. Tuf was not
averse to acting the tourist on most of the worlds he visited, but even when he was mingling with others in
public places he remained somehow apart and unapproachable. His chalk-white skin and utterly hairless
face and body usually made him conspicuous among the peoples of the planets on which he plied his
trade, and even on those infrequent occasions when his complexion might have allowed him to pass, his
size made him stand out. Thus, though people might stare at Tuf and talk of him everywhere he went, few
of them talked to him unless they had business to transact.
Given his nature, then, it was hardly remarkable that Haviland Tuf had never heard of the man called
Moses until the evening that he and Dax were assaulted by Jaime Kreen in a restaurant on K’theddion.
It was a small shabby place just off the spaceport. Tuf had finished a plate of smokeroots and neograss
and was relaxing with his third liter of mushroom wine when abruptly Dax raised his head from the table.
Tuf shook a bit, slopping some wine on his sleeve, and ducked his head quickly to one side, barely far
enough so that the bottle Kreen was wielding smashed open against the back of Tuf’s chair instead of the
back of Tuf’s skull.
Glass exploded, and the liquid within—a smelly local liquor—went everywhere, soaking the chair, the
table, the cat, and both men. Jaime Kreen, a thin blond youth with drunken blue eyes, stood blinking
stupidly, holding the broken bottle in a bleeding fist.
Haviland Tuf rose ponderously to his feet, his long white face singularly impassive. He glanced at his
assailant, blinked, and then reached down to pick up Dax, who was wet and unhappy. “Can you fathom
this, Dax?” he said in a deep bass. “We have here a mystery, albeit an inconvenient one. Why does this
odd stranger attack us, I wonder? Do you have any ideas?” He stroked Dax slowly as he cradled him in
his arms, and only when the cat began to purr did he look at Jaime Kreen again. “Sir,” he said. “It might
be wise of you to release the fragments of that bottle. It appears to me that your hand is full of glass and
blood and that particularly noxious brew, and I have severe doubts that the combination will enhance
your health.”
The stricken Kreen seemed to come alive. His thin lips drew back in anger, and he flung the bottle away
from him. “Are you mocking me, criminal?” he said in a slurred, dangerous voice.
“Sir,” said Haviland Tuf. The restaurant had grown very still: the other patrons were quiet and staring,
and the proprietor had vanished. Tuf’s deep voice could be heard in every corner of the room. “I would
venture that the title ‘criminal’ as more applicable to you than to myself, but perhaps that is not to the
point. No, I am not mocking you. You appear to be upset. Under such conditions it would be folly to
mock you, and I am not given to folly.” He placed Dax back on the table and scratched the tomcat
behind the ear.
“You are mocking me,” Jaime Kreen said. “I’ll hurt you!”
Haviland Tuf betrayed no emotion. “You will not, sir, although I believe you are thinking of attacking me
once again. I do not approve of violence. However, your boorish behavior leaves me with little choice.”
So saying, he stepped forward quickly, and lifted Jaime Kreen high off the floor before the younger man
could react. Then, carefully, he broke both of his arms.
Kreen emerged pale and blinking from the tomblike dark of Kytheddene Prison into the bright street. His
arms were in slings. He looked baffled and tired.
Haviland Tuf stood by the curbside, cradling Dax in one arm and petting him with the other. He looked
up when Kreen came forth. “Your mood appears to have quieted somewhat,” Tuf commented.
“Moreover, you are now sober.”
“You!” Kreen looked more baffled than ever; his face was so screwed up that it threatened to collapse in
upon itself. “Do I understand that you bought my freedom?”