"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

“If you want,” she said, “later on, when it’s convenient, I could show you some of the good lunch spots
in this neighborhood. I’ve worked here a long time.”

“Why, thank you,” he said. “That would be most kind.”

“Is there a particular day that would be good?”

“Well—we will be getting hungry today,” he said, and smiled. He had a sweet smile, not unlike Nick’s.

She smiled too, feeling pleased. “I’ll come back down at one o’clock and take you to a good one then,
if you like.”

“That would be most welcome. Very kind.”

She nodded. “At one, then,” already recalibrating her work schedule for the day. The boxed sandwich
could be stored in her office’s little refrigerator.
Anna completed her journey to the south elevators. Waiting there she was joined by Frank Vanderwal.
They greeted each other, and she said, “Hey I’ve got an interesting jacket for you.”

He mock-rolled his eyes. “Is there any such thing for a burnt-out case like me?”

“Oh I think so.” She gestured back at the atrium. “Did you see our new neighbor? We lost the travel
agency but gained an embassy, from a little country in Asia.”

“An embassy, here?”

“I’m not sure they know much about Washington.”

“I see.” Frank grinned his crooked grin, a completely different thing than the young monk’s sweet smile,
sardonic and knowing. “Ambassadors from Shangri-La, eh?” One of theUP arrows lit, and the elevator
door next to it opened. “Well, we can use them.”



PRIMATES INelevators. People stood in silence looking up at the lit numbers on the display console,
as per custom.

Again the experience caused Frank Vanderwal to contemplate the nature of their species, in his usual
sociobiologist’s mode. They were mammals, social primates: a kind of hairless chimp. Their bodies,
brains, minds, and societies had grown to their current state in East Africa over a period of about two
million years, while the climate was shifting in such a way that forest cover was giving way to open
savannah.

Much was explained by this. Naturally they were distressed to be trapped in a small moving box. No
savannah experience could be compared to it. The closest analog might have been crawling into a cave,
no doubt behind a shaman carrying a torch, everyone filled with great awe and very possibly under the
influence of psychotropic drugs and religious rituals. An earthquake during such a visit to the underworld
would be about all the savannah mind could contrive as an explanation for a modern trip in an elevator
car. No wonder an uneasy silence reigned; they were in the presence of the sacred. And the last five