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Robert A. Heinlein - The Cat Who Walked Through Walls
Atec Февраль 29 2008 20:18:18
The Cat Who Walked Through WallsThe Cat Who Walked Through Walls
by Robert Heinlein
BOOK one-Indifferent Honest
I
"Whatever you do, you'll regret it."
ALLAN McLEOD GRAY 1905-1975
"We need you to kill a man."
This stranger glanced nervously around us. I feel that a crowded restaurant
is no place for such talk, as a high noise level gives only limited privacy.
I shook my head. "I'm not an assassin. Killing is more of a hobby with me.
Have you had dinner?"
"I'm not here to eat. Just let me-"
"Oh, come now. I insist." He had annoyed me by interrupting an evening with
a delightful lady; I was paying him back in kind. It does not do to encourage
bad manners; one should retaliate, urbanely but firmly.
That lady, Gwen Novak, had expressed a wish to spend a penny and had left
the table, whereupon Herr Nameless had materialized and sat down uninvited. I
had been about to tell him to leave when he mentioned a name. Walker Evans.
There is no "Walker Evans."
Instead, that name is or should be a message from one of six people, five
men, one woman, a code to remind me of a debt. It is conceivable that an
installment payment on that ancient debt could require me to kill
someone-possible but unlikely.
But it was not conceivable that I would kill at the behest of a stranger
merely because he invoked that name.
While I felt obliged to listen, I did not intend to let him ruin my
evening
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