Hellstrom's Hive (Frank Herbert) читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги (ч. 10)

From Nils Hellstrom’s diary.

Sometimes, I realize my name isn’t important. It could be any other grouping of sounds and I’d still be me. Names are not important. This is a good thought. It is precisely as my brood mother and my first teachers said. The name I use represents an accident. It is not the name that might have been given to me had I been born into an Outsider family with all of their usual self-centered individualism. Their consciousness is not my consciousness; their timeline is not my timeline. We of the Hive will do away with names someday. My brood mother’s words convey a deep sense of reassurance in this. Our perfect society cannot allow permanent individual names. They are labels, at best, are names. They are useful only in a transient way. Perhaps we will carry different labels at different stages in our lives. Or numbers. Somehow, numbers feel more in keeping with the intent my brood mother expressed so well.

It was 2:40 A.M. and for almost ten minutes now Clovis had been watching Eddie pace back and forth in the tiny living room of her apartment. The telephone had awakened them from deep sleep and Eddie had answered it. He had come openly to her apartment. The Agency didn’t mind that. It expected certain sexual antics from its people and appreciated it when this activity was kept intramural. Nothing deep and demanding in this sex; just good, energetic bodily enjoyment.

All Eddie had said after hanging up was, “That was DT. Merrivale told him to call. They’ve lost contact with Carlos and Tymiena.”

“Oh, my God!”

She’d gotten out of bed then, draped a robe about her body. Eddie had gone directly into the living room.

“I should’ve answered the phone,” she said now, hoping this would break him out of his deep reverie.

“Why? DT was looking for me.”

“Here?”

“Yes.”

“How did he know you were here?”

“He tried my place and nobody answered.”

“Eddie, I don’t like that.”

“Shit!”

“Eddie, what’s the rest of it? What’d DT say?”

He stopped in front of her and stared down at her feet which she had pulled partly under her body when flopping into a chair. “He says we’ve gotta play brother and sister again. Nick Myerlie is going to be our daddy and we’re going on a nice vacation way out in Oregon!”