"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 20 - Web of Sand" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

The man had come from a narrow passage lit by a somber
orange glow. Doors gaped like hungry mouths each adorned by
symbols and suggestive illustrations, several filled with swirling
mist shot with streaks and shafts of vivid color. The vending
place of drugs and bizarre experiences, of mechanically induced
stimulation and hypnotic dreams. Soft moans came from some
of the doors, screams and frenzied cursing from others. In the
dull illumination the figures of touts loomed like distorted
ghosts.

"Full sensatapes," whispered one. "Burn, be hanged, he flayed,
be boiled in oil—all genuine experiences recorded from the
victims of actual executions. Be crucified, be impaled…"

"Be the willing victim of a woman's lust," suggested another.
"Writhe beneath the impact of demanding flesh your vigor
constantly renewed. Be…"

"A tiger, a spider, a hunting wasp." The offers were a
susuration. "Taste blood and feel the crunch of bone and chiton.
Learn…"

"How to expand the senses. To feel the winds of space on your
naked flesh. To imagine and see your imaginings take shape.
To…"

"Be a God. With these new applications of science and
medicine none need be denied the complete fullfillment of
elementary desire. Adventure, enhance your psyche, know the
joys of…"

"Rest." The voice was a purr. "Lie and smoke and dream and
forget the strife of survival. Find happiness and joy in pleasant
vapors. A hundred kren buys you a couch for an hour."
 A place in a mist of smoke where somnolent shapes lay in
temporary oblivion. Figures which twitched at times and stirred
and cried out as they rose from the euphoria of dreams or
plunged deeper into the horror of nightmare. The last of the
doorways. Beyond lay what Dumarest had come to find.




Chapter Three

Like the city the Stril was layered; parts catering to innocuous
amusements, others dealing with those of stronger meat, a
section close to Hell itself. Beyond the passage the roof soared
over widened passages, a cleared space in which fountains cast a