"Mack Reynolds - Tomorrow Might Be Different" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

The bugle blew and the paseo began. The two matadors, followed by their quadrilles, paraded across
the ring toward the judge's box, to salute him in much the manner the gladiators of Rome had once called
to their emperor. We who are about to die, salute you!

Catherina Saratov said to him, "Actually a very uncultured sport, this bull baiting. Is it allowed in
England, as well?"

"Well, I don't believe so," Mike said. "Only in some of the Latin countries, I think. I'm an American, you
know, not British."

"An American." She stared at him, fascinated. She leaned forward and said, "Do you mind if I ask you a
question?"

"Of course not." Mike was disconcerted. Not only because of her sudden eagerness as she leaned
toward him, but due to the fact that this dress was almost as revealing as her beach costume.

Catherina said, with a certain horrified fascination, "Have you ever helped lynch a Black?"

He might have known that was coming. He got it with every contingent of Russkies that came through.
Mike said, "Well, no. Our authorities take a very dim view of such activities. I'm from the State of New
Mexico, myself. I doubt if anybody's been lynched there since the days of Billy the Kid."

He decided to go a bit further than usual in his capacity as Horizonal Holiday's tour manager in
Torremolinos. He said, "Do you mind if I ask you a question, in turn?"

"Why, of course not."

"Have you ever been purged?"'

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well, I understand that Russians think Americans spend half their time lynching each other. On the other
hand, the idea in the United States is that the Russian national sport is purging."

"Purging?" Catherina said. "I don't believe I understand." Then, "Oh, purging. You mean back in the
1930s between Stalin and the Old Bolsheviks."

Mike said dryly, "I understand that wasn't exactly the last time you had a political purge."
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Catherina shrugged her shoulders, which only increased her decollete and brought a dryness of mouth to
Mike Edwards, and her attention went back to the ring where Manola Segura was waiting for his first
bull of the afternoon.

She said, "In the early days after the revolution when the Soviets were still very poor, everybody fought
to get to the top, as man has in all societies down through the ages. Only the higher bureaucrats and a
few others, such as the higher officers in the armies, some of the writers, artists and entertainers, were