"Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. The snail on the slope" - читать интересную книгу автора

getting up, scraping chairs, and making for the exit, lighting up and
throwing match-sticks on the floor. Hausbotcher surveyed them malevolently
and said to everyone as they passed: "Strange behavior, gentlemen, you can
surely see we're having a discussion."
When Acey returned with his bottle, Pepper spoke to him.
"The manager didn't really say he wouldn't provide me with a vehicle,
did he? He was just joking, wasn't that it?"
"Why should he? He likes you, Mister Pepper, bored without you and it's
just not worth his while to let you go. ... Well if he lets you, what's in
it for him? No joking."
Pepper bit his lip.
"How the devil can I get away? There's nothing more for me to do here.
My visa's running out, and anyway I just want to get away."
"Anyhow," said Acey, "if you get three reprimands, they'll sling you
out in two shakes. You'll get a special bus, they'll get a driver up in the
middle of the night, you won't get time to collect your bits of things. . .
. Here the boys work it this way. First warning, a reduction in rank;
second, you're sent to the forest to expiate your sins. Third reprimand,
thank you and good night. If I wanted the sack, for example, I'd drink half
a jar and sock this guy in the jaw," he indicated Hausbotcher. "They'd take
away my privileges and transfer me to the crap-wagon. Then what do I do?
Drink another half-jar and give him another one--got it? They'd take me off
the crap-wagon and send me out to the biostation to catch some old microbes.
But I don't go. I drink another half-jar and give it to him across the chops
for the third time. Well that's the end of it. Sacked for hooligan conduct
and deported in twenty-four hours."
Hausbotcher waved a threatening finger at Acey.
"Misinformation, misinformation, Ace. In the first place, at least a
month must elapse between the actions, otherwise all the misdemeanors will
be regarded as one and the transgressor will simply be put in jail without
any further steps being taken within the Directorate. Secondly, following
the second misdemeanor, they send the convicted man to the forest at once
under guard, so that he will be deprived of any opportunity to carry out a
third offense at his own discretion. Don't pay any attention to him, Pepper,
he knows nothing about these matters."
Acey took a mouthful of yogurt, frowned, and wheezed out a confession.
"True, enough. I really . . . well. I'm sorry, Mister Pepper."
"Doesn't matter, what the. . . ." said Pepper sadly. "I still can't hit
a man in the face whichever way you put it."
"It doesn't have to be the . . . jaw," said Acey. "You can make it the
... the behind. Or just rip his suit." "No, I can't do it," said Pepper.
"Too bad, then," said Acey. "That's your trouble, Mister Pepper. Here's what
we'll do. Tomorrow morning around sevenish, come around to the garage, get
in my truck, and wait. I'll take you." "You will?" Pepper was overjoyed.
"Well I've got to take a load of scrap metal to the mainland. We'll go
together."
Somebody suddenly gave a terrible shout in the corner. "What do you
think you're doing? You've spilled my soup!"
"A man ought to be simple and straightforward," said Hausbotcher. "I
don't understand, Pepper, why you want to get away from here. Nobody wants