"John Varley - Blue Champagne" - читать интересную книгу автора (Varley John)

That was fine with Ian. It made what he planned to do much easier. He had his excuses ready, of
course, but it could be embarrassing to be confronted with the questions representatives of the law
ask single, middle-aged men who hang around playgrounds.

For a moment he considered, with real concern, how the parents of these children could feel so
confident, even with mental conditioning. After all, no one was conditioned until he had first done
something. New maniacs were presumably being produced every day. Typically, they looked just
like everyone else until they proved their difference by some demented act.

Somebody ought to give those parents a stern lecture, he thought.



"Who are you?"

Ian frowned. Not eleven, surely, not seen up this close. Maybe not even ten. She might be as young
as eight.

Would eight be all right? He tasted the idea with his usual caution, looked around again for curious
eyes. He saw none.

"My name is Ian. What's yours?"

"No. Not your name. Who are you?"

"You mean what do I do?"

"Yes."

"I'm a pusher."

She thought that over, then smiled. She had her permanent teeth, crowded into a small jaw.

"You give away pills?"

He laughed. "Very good," he said. "You must do a lot of reading."

She said nothing, but her manner indicated she was pleased.

"No," he said. "That's an old kind of pusher. I'm the other kind. But you knew that, didn't you?"
When he smiled, she broke into giggles. She was doing the pointless things with her hands that little
girls do. He thought she had a pretty good idea of how cute she was, but no inkling of her forbidden
eroticism. She was a ripe seed with sexuality ready to burst to the surface. Her body was a bony


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Blue Champagne

sketch, a framework on which to build a woman.