"Robert Weinberg - Logical Magician 02 - A Calculated Magician" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weinberg Robert)

one common thread bound them all together. Each and every one of them was a fraud.
Financed by one of Roger’s numerous secret bank accounts, a team of private detectives
investigated the background of all of the self-proclaimed psychics. Not surprisingly, most of them turned
out to be well-known con men or women, whose only talent consisted of making their clients’ money
disappear.
Those few spiritualists who checked out clean, the detectives visited. The investigators offered
huge sums to anyone capable of demonstrating actual psychic powers. Despite hugely extravagant claims
of great and miraculous powers by each individual, none of them was able to perform any actual feat of
black magic or sorcery.
After weeks of fruitless searching, Roger fired the detectives. He was still convinced that
supernatural beings with amazing powers existed in the real world. He knew it for a fact. Sooner or later,
the investigators would have found the right one. Unfortunately, Roger didn’t have time to spare.
“You’ll stay in touch?” asked Dr. Philips as Roger rose from the examination table. “If those
blotches grow bigger, we could try radiation therapy.”
Roger grimaced. “I doubt if I’ll be back. I’m off to Las Vegas tomorrow. Hopefully, the answer
to all my problems lies there.”
“Las Vegas?” said Philips. “I didn’t know there were any major cancer clinics located there.”
“There aren’t,” said Roger. “I’m going there to see an old man about his payments on a
mountain.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” said the physician, sounding puzzled.
“Neither do I,” said Roger, heading for the door. “But that’s not unusual. I rarely do anymore
these days. Mere mortals are not privy to the secrets of the Gods.”
“Whatever you say,” declared Philips, shaking his head. He obviously thought Roger was slightly
demented. “I’m an agnostic myself.”
“So was I,” said Roger. “Once.”
Stepping into the street a few minutes later, Roger squinted in the harsh sunlight. According to the
city directory, there was a travel agency located within two blocks of the physician’s office. He glanced
down at his watch. The doctor’s appointment had lasted six minutes longer than he anticipated.
However, he had allowed an eleven-minute margin of error in his schedule. His day was proceeding
pretty much according to plan.
Roger was meticulous to a fault. A computer programmer for twenty years, he believed in
exactness. Each morning, he mentally outlined his schedule for the next twenty-four hours in fine detail.
Once decided, he maintained that routine no matter what happened. Though most people thought Roger
was slightly crazy, he considered himself the soul of logic.
A tall, thin man with a scraggly beard and thinning brown hair starting to gray at the temples,
Roger appeared to be nothing more than the usual California computer jock. His sloped shoulders and
intent, slightly glazed glare reinforced that image. Few people realized that he was president of one of the
most powerful consulting firms on the West Coast. And none of that select number knew the secret of his
success.
Five years ago, Roger had been a computer hacker working for a minor software company in
Silicon Valley. Smart but not brilliant, his obsession with exactness had lost him jobs with most of the
major firms in the computer industry. Thus, he struggled in obscurity, earning a salary barely enough to
cover the high cost of living in California.
The big change in his life came the night he attended a New Age seance. Convinced by the event
that the occult existed, Roger spent weeks investigating spells necessary to raise demons. He soon
concluded that black magicians, unwilling to reveal their closely guarded secrets to others, deliberately
changed their invocations when committing them to print. It was as if the spells had been published in
code, without a key. But medieval sorcerers had not taken into account the greatest code breaker of all
time---the modern computer.
Less than a month after attending the seance, Roger raised his first demon. Soon he was making