The Goodbye Man
- Автор: Дивер Джеффри
- Серия: Colter Shaw #2
- Год: 2020
- Язык: английский
- Год: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
- ISBN: 978-0-525-53597-3
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «The Goodbye Man». Краткое содержание книги:
“We should get to the Summons, Apprentice Carter.”
“I’ll be along in a minute.”
The man said insistently, “No, no, no! I don’t want you to get in trouble. You know the Rules. A Summons, you have to get there immediately. They mark down things like that, and it delays your training if you get too many demerits. I know you’ll want to be a Journeyman as soon as you can.”
The club was just feet away. He absolutely needed it for what was coming next.
But he saw no way out of this dilemma. He sighed and joined the man.
“You have your notebook with you. Good for you. Always jot things down. That’s important.”
“Rule Nine,” Shaw recited.
“Yes, yes. I hear you’re quite the mapmaker too.”
So someone had noticed it and reported him. No surprise.
“Didn’t want to get lost on the grounds. And I’m not that talented.”
“Oh, modest man.”
“Do you draw too?”
“Me? Oh, brother, no. I drew something, you’d look at it and say, ‘What the dickens’s that?’” He seemed to blush. “But I have one talent. I can hum like an opera singer.”
“Hum?”
“I don’t do good with words but I can hum like Paverelli.”
“Pavarotti?”
The man nodded. “Off season, I’m going to try out for some choirs or choruses in Omaha. Off season, I mean the fall and winter, when the camp here’s closed. You know Master Eli travels to the Far East, meditates, studies, hones his skills? He’s the smartest and most generous man in the world. Don’t you think?”
“He is.”
Timothy looked around at the people moving toward the Square. “A Summons takes priority over everything.” He lowered his voice. “I knew a Companion here once who had an accident in his pants because that was better than showing up late for a Summons. I myself probably would’ve made a stop in the head. But I respect what he did. How’s your training going?”
“Good.”
Timothy did the shoulder salute to an AU. “Master Eli’s training me himself. We’ve found a lot of Minuses from my Yesterdays. I was on the wrong path all of my life. I’d built a city of Minuses. I told that to Master Eli and he liked it. He used it in a Discourse. A ‘City of Minuses.’ And he pointed me out.” Timothy beamed.
Shaw and the man passed Building 14, whose front door was open. There was movement inside, three or four AUs. A Select as well.
Timothy said wistfully, “I miss TV.”
“Sorry?” Shaw asked.
“Be our secret, right?” Timothy whispered, looking around. In anyone else, reluctance to admit that he liked television would be insignificant, or even played as a joke.
“Sure.”
“I wouldn’t mind watching a TV program here from time to time. When I was married we watched all sorts of fun shows. Not the news, of course. Master Eli wouldn’t allow that. But maybe sitcoms. Big Bang Theory. That was a hoot. The new Star Trek. And Kelsey Grammer. Frasier. Oh, that man made us laugh. My wife and me. When we were... Well, it was funny.”
“Did you talk to Master Eli about getting TVs?”
“Oh, I’m not one to make waves. He says we can’t be distracted from the Process.”
They arrived at the Square. Shaw stood at the outskirts of the crowd, gripping his notebook. He wondered if he could slip out, unseen, and retrieve the war club. No. A number of AUs and Inner Circles were herding everyone into the Square, as if guarding the perimeter. The crowd was the full complement, about a hundred people, the Novices, Apprentices and Journeymen in the middle, as usual. At stage right an AU was mounting a camera. The previous Discourses had been filmed on the ICs’ tablets; this was the first time a camera, on a tripod, had been set up since Shaw had been here.
On the stage was a table, and on it sat a bottle of red wine, the cork sitting loosely in the neck.
Eli was off the stage, talking to Journeyman Marion. She was having trouble keeping from smiling in pride. Pinned to her blouse was a small bunch of dried lavender. Maybe the herb was supposed to be the symbol of the new group. Beside them stood Steve.
Eli nodded and he and Journeyman Marion climbed the stairs, followed by the chosen Companions and unsmiling Anja. As they took their places behind the table, the applause began, shouts too, instigated, of course, by the ICs. The two men and two women — the new Circle — seemed of mixed emotions. Some were embarrassed by the attention, some were smiling proudly. They sat behind the table. Marion took her place in the center. Eli stood behind her. It was a modified Last Supper tableau.
At Eli’s gesture, Steve set down his bulging notebook, then stepped forward and filled the glasses sitting in front of each place. One for Eli too.
When the glasses were topped off, Eli stepped forward and looked over the crowd.
“Friends and Companions, it is my honor to welcome these individuals to our new group. The Circle of Representatives. There will be much work ahead of us, as we expand the Foundation throughout the country. And throughout the world. But we won’t be stopped from spreading the word that the best...”
“...is yet to come!”
Wild applause.
Eli raised his glass. “Here’s to the Process. To the Foundation... To the Tomorrow!”
The Circle downed the wine. As Eli lifted the glass to his lips, there came a cry from the ground. “Stop!” It was Hugh, running onto the stage. He slapped the wineglass from Eli’s hand. It crashed to the planks and shattered.
Gasps from the audience.
“It’s been poisoned! The wine! You’re going to die!”
61
Cries rose from the Companions in the Square. The inductees leapt to their feet, dropping their glasses, horror on their faces. Everyone but Eli had drunk the wine.
“He got rat poison from Building Fourteen!” Hugh shouted. “Call the doctor! Get him here now!”
An AU pulled a walkie-talkie off his hip and radioed for help.
Eli called, “What is this? What’s going on?”
Hugh brandished a sheet of paper. “We found this. A business plan he’s drawn up. He wants to destroy the Foundation. Start his own. He’s killing those you picked for the new group, Master Eli! And trying to kill you too.”
Gasps and screams from the crowd. Several of the people onstage were gagging themselves to induce vomiting. They were disturbingly successful.
“He? Who?” Eli demanded. “Who are you talking about?”
“Him!” Hugh said, spinning around. His face was contorted with anger. He stabbed a finger at Steve.
The young man blustered, “I...” He looked to Eli, then back to Hugh. “No. I didn’t do anything. I wouldn’t. You know I wouldn’t.”
“Two Companions saw him in the gardening shed with the wine bottle.”
“No, I swear.” Steve’s face was crimson. “I never... I love you, Master Eli.”
Hugh said, “He was overheard saying he’d lived in your shadow for too long. You didn’t treat him right.”
“Treat him right?” Eli whispered. “He was like my son.”
“Toxic!” somebody cried.
“He’s a Toxic!”
“Judas!”
“Cast him out!”
“Kill him!”
“The doctor? Where’s the doctor?”
Colter Shaw glanced at the agitated crowd, the fury in their faces.