"Alastair Reynolds - Signal to Noise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

thrashing, are you?”

“That’s why I’m here,” Mick said. “Got to cancel, sorry. Too much on my plate tod

“Naughty.”

“Ted Evans can fill in for me. He’s got his kit. You know Ted, don’t you?”

“Vaguely.” Joe set down his sandwich to put the lid back on a felt-tipped pen. He
an amiable Yorkshireman who’d come down to Cardiff for his postgraduate work and
decided to stay. He was married to an archaeologist named Rachel who spent a lot of
time poking around in the Roman ruins under the walls of Cardiff Castle. “Sure I can’t t
your arm? It’ll do you good, you know, bit of a workout.”

“I know. But there just isn’t time.”

“Your call. How are things, anyway?”

Mick shrugged philosophically. “Been better.”

“Did you phone Andrea like you said you were going to?”

“No.”

“You should, you know.”

“I’m not very good on the phone. Anyway, I thought she probably needed a bit o
space.”

“It’s been three weeks, mate.”

“I know.”

“Do you want the wife to call her? It might help.”

“No, but thanks for suggesting it anyway.”

“Call her. Let her know you’re missing her.”
 “I’ll think about it.”

“Yeah, sure. You should stick around, you know. It’s all go here this morning. We
lock just after seven this morning.” Joe tapped one of the laptop screens, which was
scrolling rows of black-on-white numbers. “It’s a good one, too.”

“Really?”

“Come and have a look at the machine.”

“I can’t. I need to get back to my office.”