"Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

can't stand that."
Selim shuddered. In the gloom the whites of his eyes were bright.
"He has to be stopped."
Frank turned aside, leaned against a tree. "I… don't know."
"You said it yourself. Talk means nothing."
Frank circled the tree, feeling dizzy. You fool, he thought, talk means
everything. We are nothing but information exchange, talk is all we have!
He came on Selim again and said, "How?"
"The planet. It is our way."
"The city gates are locked tonight."
That stopped him. His hands started to twist.
Frank said, "But the gate to the farm is still open."
"But the farm's outer gates will be locked."
Frank shrugged, let him figure it out.
And quickly enough Selim blinked, and said "Ah." Then he was
gone.
# # #
Frank sat between trees, on the ground. It was a sandy damp brown
dirt, product of a great deal of engineering. Nothing in the city was
natural, nothing.
After a time he got to his feet. He walked through the park, looking at
people. If I find one good city I will spare the man. But in an open area
masked figures darted together to grapple and fight, surrounded by
watchers who smelled blood. Frank went back to the construction site to
get more bricks. He threw them and some people saw him, and he had to
run. Into the trees again, into the little tented wilderness, escaping
predators while high on adrenalin, the greatest drug of all. He laughed
wildly.
Suddenly he caught sight of Maya, standing alone by the temporary
platform up at the apex. She wore a white domino, but it was certainly her:
the proportions of the figure, the hair, the stance itself, all unmistakably
Maya Toitovna. The first hundred, the little band; they were the only ones
truly alive to him any more, the rest were ghosts. Frank hurried toward
her, tripping over uneven ground. He squeezed a rock buried deep in one
coat pocket, thinking Come on, you bitch. Say something to save him.
Say something that will make me run the length of the city to save him!
She heard his approach and turned. She wore a phosphorescent white
domino, with metallic blue sequins. It was hard to see her eyes.
"Hello, Frank," she said, as if he wore no mask. He almost turned and
ran. Mere recognition was almost enough to do it . . . .
But he stayed. He said, "Hello, Maya. Nice sunset, wasn't it?"
"Spectacular. Nature has no taste. It's just a city inauguration, but it
looked like Judgement Day."
They were under a streetlight, standing on their shadows. She said,
"Have you enjoyed yourself?"
"Very much. And you?"
"It's getting a little wild."
"It's understandable, don't you think? We're out of our holes, Maya,
we're on the surface at last! And what a surface! You only get these kind
of long views on Tharsis."