To Ride Pegasus
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Talents #1
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «To Ride Pegasus». Краткое содержание книги:
“Not at all,” Henry replied. “I’m not a telepath. I’m a tea leaf reader on a grandiose scale…”
The Commissioner pursed his lips to hear his own description of Henry Darrow thrown back at him.
“All right, then, tell me now if my men’ll succeed?”
“Barbara can tell you better than I. I don’t deal generally with individuals. My specialty is mass movement. But Barbara can find Joe Blow for you now and any time you want to check on his whereabouts…”
“They have him,” Barbara said, and held out her hand for another card.
The Commissioner stared at her suspiciously.
“Oh, let’s let his men tell him, Babs.”
She shrugged and settled back in her chair. Then brightened and smiled sweetly at Mailer. “You left your pipe in your ski jacket, Commissioner, the blue one which you don’t usually wear. If you call home right now, you’ll find your wife there. And remind her the coat is under your red dressing robe in the first closet.”
Mailer regarded her with narrowed eyes. “I thought you said you weren’t a mind reader.”
“I never said that,” Barbara replied, then pointed to Henry. “He did. And I can only get impressions of lost articles. You did lose the pipe and were just now thinking where had you put it. And the only reason I know about your wife is because you say you can never find her when you need her.” Barbara kept her face very straight but Henry knew her to be possessed of a sense of devilment, very much in evidence under that air of innocent helpfulness.
This “finding” was making far more impression on the Commissioner than her location of Joe Blow.
The comunit buzzed.
“They picked up a man, answering that description. What do they do with him?
He’s demanding rights.”
Mailer was unprepared for only one moment. “Search him. There’s been a local robbery and a man answering his description was seen nearby. You’re supposed to find a wad of credits and papers. Invoke citizen search prerogative.”
“He’s carrying roughly 8000 credits, sir,” said Barbara.
“The heist was 8000.”
There was a second long tense silence.
“He’s got it, sir.”
“Book him!”
The fleeting expressions on Mailer’s face now told of intense mental conflict.
He was a man to whom a miracle had been offered and he was too scared to accept it.
“Barbara is parapsychic, Commissioner. We brought Goosegg in to prove to you on a scientific basis as reliable as ballistics, without a tea leaf in sight, that her mind generates a specific type of electrical impulse when she uses her parapsychic Talent. She can’t read your mind except when you, or anyone, are worrying about something lost, strayed or stolen…”
“Stolen-“ The Commissioner pounced on the word.
“If you mean that hijacked shipment of crowd gas, Commissioner,” said Barbara, “it’s in a warehouse, with a southside feel. It’s very dark inside, which hampers me: I can’t see in shadows. I can make out some white airfreight containers, they’ve a plastic feel, rather than wood or steel. There’s a geometric design in dark paint in the lower left hand side.” She frowned and the
Goosegg chattered rapidly for a moment and then toned down to a mild, normal swing. “I’m sorry. There simply isn’t enough light there.”
The Commissioner snorted but her information had obviously given him something to work on. “South side…air freight…white…” His fist slapped down an end key. “Jack…what air freight companies use white containers with geometric designs in lower left hand…Oh, they do. Now, what air freight companies use southside depots…Oh. Hmmm. Well, check your contacts like right now.” He turned a cold dispassionate look on Barbara. “You can’t be more specific?”
Barbara gave Henry a quick glance before answering. “I’ve already narrowed the search to a small section of the city with as many specifics as I can see. There can’t be that many warehouses for air freight! I’ve done more than you’ve been able to, Mr. Mailer.”
“Now, just a minute, young lady…”
“You’ve had more than a minute, Commissioner, and my time is valuable.” Barbara was on her feet, the electrode net in her hand. “We’re wasting time with this one, Henry. And I don’t like him. Miserable vibes from him, just miserable!”
She left the room. Molly quietly began to pack up the Goosegg while the Commissioner stared first at the open door and then at Henry.
“She operates more efficiently with an occasional word or two of thanks, Mailer.
Most people do.” Henry gathered Molly into the curve of his arm, motioned courteously to Jerry to take the Goosegg and wishing Mailer a pleasant good-day, left.
“Hey, just a minute…”
Henry turned at the door. “As Babs said, Mailer, you’ve had more than a minute and our time is valuable.”
“Does Charity have to be sedated again, Gus?” Henry asked the Center’s physician. “We’ve got her a temporary contract to find out the troublemaker in the Arrow Shirt Company.”
Gus ducked his head, his face twisted into a grimace, wanting to say no and having to say yes. He leaned against the now flagged door to Charity McGillicuddy’s two roomed accommodation on the living floor of the Center’s warehouse building.
“Even with the shielding we’ve got, Hank, it’s not enough privacy for the empaths and telepaths. Not enough physical distance. No way to get out and away from ourselves, if you get what I mean. We’re sort of all crammed into this warren despite the conveniences and amenities. You might say, it’s too much of a good thing…too close a buddy-buddy act. Like an overdose of euphorics..Everyone’s high here on sheer good fellowship. And it’s much too much for Charity.”
Henry looked towards the corridor window with the projection of sunlight on the grass, a huge spreading beech tree, russet against an autumnally blue sky.
Though it was so realistic that the leaves moved gently and the angle of sunlight altered slowly, Henry knew it to be only a projection and his mind would not accept the fantasy that deluded millions of warren dwellers.
“Talent requires certain realities not obtainable in this age,” Gus went on.
“And one of the most important is physical freedom and elbow room.” He snorted, aware of the impossibility of fulfilling that requirement in Jerhattan’s overcrowded boundaries.
“We’ve been offered that old game preserve in…”
“Too goddamned far to commute and most of us gotta.” Molnar was head neurologist at the Midtown Hospital Center although he spent more time as the Center’s physician.
“Okay,” Henry said, “I’ll do what I can.”
“Henry?” Gus eyed his friend suspiciously. “What are you up to now?”
“Me? Nothing.” Then Henry Darrow assumed a crouched stance and rubbed his hands together, chuckling evilly. “But Destiny…haha HA! I know when we twain shall meet. Soon!”
Gus rolled his eyes heavenward to deal with Henry Darrow in this whimsical mood.
“Oh, don’t worry, Gus,” Henry said in a normal voice. “I usually call ‘em, you know.”
Gus nodded sourly.
“Content yourself,” Henry continued, “with the enticing thoughts of dissecting my brain when I die, and trying to figure out just how I do it.”
“Ha!”
“You can’t subpoena Barbara Holland, not on those grounds, Commissioner Mailer,” Henry Darrow said. “But you can hire her services from the Center…”
“What Center?” demanded Mailer, looking scornfully around the minuscule space that served as Henry’s office.
“The Center we’ll shortly acquire with the wages you’ll be paying Talents like Barbara, and Titter Beyley and Gil Gracie and…”
“Titter Beyley?” The Commissioner hovered on the verge of apoplexy.