"Richard Wilson - The Eight Billion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Richard)

sounded excited.
"Very close, Your Majesty. They wait only your presence."
"We'll go right after chow."
A mist began to descend from the feeder nozzles in the ceiling. "Odd
numbers inhale," the voice of the Chef said. "Deep breaths now. Exhale.
Even numbers inhale. Now out. Odd in, even out. Even in, odd out. Keep
the rhythm or you'll burst the walls." The Royal Chef talked to the nobles
as if they were half-witted privates.
"Oh, damn," the King said. "Essence of plankton again."
"Nourishing, though," the vizier said on the exhale. Then he breathed in
hungrily.
"We keep forgetting whether we're odd or even," said the King, who had
been breathing at random to the discomfort of his chief minister. "We
know we have dispensation but we like to cooperate."
"Your Majesty is odd; I'm even."
"How Our Gracious Queen manages to get fat on this stuff I'll never
know," the King said. He turned to her. "Exhale, dear, while we're
inhaling."
"What?" she said.
 "Never mind, dear." To the vizier he said: "Holy Moly. Can we start
now?"
"To the Board of Supervisors' meeting, Sire?" It was on the agenda, and
the King must not seem to be rushing downtown.
The King nodded and inch by inch they left, the vizier starting the cry
that the nobles took up: "Gutzin for the King! Gutzin for the King!"



The nobles weren't the only idle ones.
There were few jobs other than those connected with essential services
such as Communications (skyvision, grown-in radio), Waste Disposal (the
daily garbage rocket into space), Feeding, Health, Subways and Sports.
Sports was really part of Communications but had insisted on its own
Dukedown. Thus it managed to perpetuate the fiction that its football,
baseball and hockey games were live, contemporary contests. Actually they
were all on tape or film and hardly a player was still alive.
There was a sound reason. Spectator sports involving mass
transportation of people had long since had to be banned. It was no longer
possible to get 100,000 or more people in and out of Central Park
Stadium for a game—because there were already 800,000 people living
there permanently, stacked up in tiers.
The Board of Supervisors' meeting was scheduled to discuss an incident
which had occurred on the Harlem River Overbuild.
The 63 supervisors were jammed erect in their meeting room, which
had once been a secretary's office in the County Building.
There was no room to sit down, even for the King, who stood near a
window from which he had a good view of the teeming, spiry colossus he
ruled.
The supervisors nearest him were all talking at once, taking advantage
of the King's rare visit to advance their private causes. The King listened