"David Marusek - Getting to Know You" - читать интересную книгу автора (Marusek David)

an important person, modern and successful. That you are an investigator.”
He peered at her over his teacup.

“Missing persons, actually, for the National Police.” she said. “But I
quit that years ago. When we found every-body.”

“You found everybody?” Victor laughed and gazed at her steadily,
then turned to watch Nancy making her rounds in the living room.

“What about you, Mr. Vole?” Zoranna said. “What do you do for a
living?”

“What’s this Mr.? I’m not Mr. I’m Victor! We are prac-tically related,
you and I. What do I do for a living? For a living I live, of course. For
groceries, I teach ballroom dance lessons.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Why should I kid? I teach the waltz, the fox-trot, the cha-cha.” He
mimed holding a partner and swaying in three-quarters time. “I teach the
merletz and my specialty, the Cuban tango.”

“I’m amazed,” said Zoranna. “There’s enough interest in that for
Applied People to keep instructors?”

Victor recoiled in mock affront. “I am not AP. I’m a freebooter, like
you, Zoe.”

“Oh,” she said and paused to sip her tea. If he wasn’t AP, what was
he doing obviously living in an APRT? Had Nancy respoused? Applied
People tended to be pro-prietary about living arrangements in its towers.
Bug, she tongued, find Victor Vole’s status in the tower directory. Out loud
she said, “It pays well, dance instruction?”

“It pays execrably.” He threw his hands into the air. “As do all the arts.
But some things are more important than money. You make a point,
however. A man must eat, so I do other things as well. I consult with
gentlemen on the contents of their wardrobes. This pays more
hand-somely, for gentlemen detest appearing in public in out-moded attire.”

Zoranna had a pleasing mental image of this tall, ele-gant man in a
starched white shirt and black tux floating across a shiny hardwood floor in
the arms of an equally elegant partner. She could even imagine herself as
that partner. But Nancy?

The tower link is unavailable, said Bug, due to over-extension of
the houseputer processors.

Zoranna was surprised. A mere three dozen interactive holos would
hardly burden her home system. But then, everything on Sub40 seemed