"Spider Robinson - Copyright Violation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

Suddenly I was roaring in a voice I had never known I had. "Do you know that
the moment a pain is fast relieved is the moment you learn how large it truly was?
Agony is defined by relief! I learned tonight just what a horrible joke my life has been
and will be and I didn't even mind! I was grateful to you for calibrating my misery!
For showing me exactly what I'd been missing!"
I crouched and came up with my ultimate wet dream in my fist. I was dimly
astonished to realize that I was not crying. Rage had always made me cry. "This is
solid gold you've got here," I said, brandishing the crown. "You're very good at
what you do. Not hard, I suppose, when you can rent—or more likely, copy—all the
tricks there are."
She scowled.
I looked at it for a while. "Can this thing play back by itself," I asked huskily, "or
do you need other equipment?"
She looked me in the eye. For the first time since I'd gotten up to pee, a smile
touched the corners of her mouth. "There's a thumbnail toggle inside. Once to stop,
twice to rewind, three times to play back. You'll get the whole thing in six seconds of
realtime."
"Slick."
I tore my eyes from the crown, and made a small gasping sound. In the soft
lamplight, with-out my glasses, her naked body was the most beautiful thing I had
ever seen. Even more beautiful, perhaps, than that same body had been four hours
ago. She did that thing that women have been able to do since Eve. There are no
discernible gross muscle movements, but the whole body seems to rearrange itself . .
. to beckon to you, somehow.
I didn't want to ask. The words were torn out of me. "It was all faked, wasn't it,
Marga?"
"In the sense that all performance art is faked."
A graceful out. I wouldn't take it. "You know what I mean. As the cliche goes ...
was it good for you, too?"
I saw a flicker of pity in her eyes, I know that one real well, and I saw it die in the
instant it was born. She knew I couldn't be conned any more. She glanced down
briefly to my groin, and back up. "You notice I didn't wear a crown myself," she
muttered.
Again I didn't kill her. I didn't do anything at all, as far as I know. I'm sure I
stopped breathing. I remember hearing the fan in the next room in the sudden
silence. How long did I stare at her in the stillness, feeling the metal crown cool
against one palm, the time machine and gun faintly warm against the other? My
medulla licked in finally, and I sucked in a deep breath.
And she said, clear as a bell and twice as pretty, "But you were sweet, and you're
taking it like a man. All right: nine percent of the net, my final offer. Jimby will be
furious—that's a point over the going rate."
In that instant I became, not merely a func-tional male animal, but a man.
I put the time machine gently down on the couch. "All right," I said, "you got me
good. I guess the joke's on me. And as long as you're prepared to give me a whore's
usual cut, I guess I really have no kick coming, have I? Oh, I admit, I'm tempted to
give you a good spanking—"
Her eyes showed genuine interest for the first time.
"—but why give you more good material for free? Tell you what: make my end
ten percent why should I pay an agent's commission?—and you can have your time
machine and gun and crown back."