"Zelazny, Roger - Amber 06 - Trumps Of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

"I'm finished there."
"Wait'll you hear the proposition, huh? Brady gets kicked upstairs and
you're the new head of Design--for a twenty percent pay hike. That's what he
told me to tell you."
I chuckled softly.
"Actually, it doesn't sound bad at all. But, like I said, I'm finished."
"Oh." His eyes glistened as he gave me a sly smile. "You do have something
lined up someplace else. He was wondering. Okay, if that's the case he told me
to tell you to bring him whatever the other guys offer. He'll try like hell to
top it."
I shook my head.
"I guess I' m not getting through," I said: "I' m finished. Period. I don't
want to go back. I'm not going to work for anyone else either. I'm done with
this sort of thing. I'm tired of computers."
"But you're really good. Say, you going to teach?"
"Nope."
"Well, hell! You've got to do something. Did you come into some money?"
"No. I believe I'll do some traveling. I've been in one place too long."
He raised his coffee cup and drained it. Then he leaned back, clasped his
hands across his stomach, and lowered his eyelids slightly. He was silent for a
time.
Finally: "You said you were finished. Did you just mean the job and your
life here, or something else as well?"
"I don't follow you."
"You had a way of disappearing--back in college, too. You'd be gone for a
while and then just as suddenly turn up again. You always were vague about it,
too. Seemed like you were leading some sort of double life. That have anything
to do with it?"
"I don't know what you mean."
He smiled.
"Sure you do," he said. When I did not reply, he added, "Well, good luck
with it--whatever."
Always moving, seldom at rest, he fidgeted with a key ring while we had a
second cup of coffee, bouncing and jangling keys and a blue shone pendant. Our
breakfasts finally arrived and we ate is silence for a while.
Then he asked, "You still have the Starburst?"
"No. Sold her last fall," I told him. "I'd been so busy I just didn't have
time to sail. Hated to see her idle."
He nodded.
"That's too bad," he said. "We had a lot of fun with her, back in school.
Later, too. I'd have liked to take her out once more, for old times' sake."
"Yes."
"Say, you haven't seen Julia recently."
"No, not since we broke up. I think she's still going with some guy named
Rick. Have you?"
"Yeah. I stopped by last night."
"Why?"
He shrugged.
"She was one of the gang--and we've all been drifting apart."
"How was she?"