• Пожаловаться

Gary Corby: Death Ex Machina

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Gary Corby: Death Ex Machina» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию). В некоторых случаях присутствует краткое содержание. год выпуска: 2015, ISBN: 978-1-61695-520-5, издательство: Soho Press, категория: Исторический детектив / на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале. Библиотека «Либ Кат» — LibCat.ru создана для любителей полистать хорошую книжку и предлагает широкий выбор жанров:

любовные романы фантастика и фэнтези приключения детективы и триллеры эротика документальные научные юмористические анекдоты о бизнесе проза детские сказки о религиии новинки православные старинные про компьютеры программирование на английском домоводство поэзия

Выбрав категорию по душе Вы сможете найти действительно стоящие книги и насладиться погружением в мир воображения, прочувствовать переживания героев или узнать для себя что-то новое, совершить внутреннее открытие. Подробная информация для ознакомления по текущему запросу представлена ниже:

Gary Corby Death Ex Machina

Death Ex Machina: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «Death Ex Machina»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

Gary Corby: другие книги автора


Кто написал Death Ex Machina? Узнайте фамилию, как зовут автора книги и список всех его произведений по сериям.

Death Ex Machina — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «Death Ex Machina», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Sophocles hurried off.

Another man emerged from the largest group of chatterers. It was Theokritos, the High Priest of Dionysos.

“You did exceptionally well for such a young lady,” he said to Diotima.

“Thank you, sir.” Diotima fell into the demure pose she reserved for middle-aged men who thought they were smarter than she.

Theokritos wasn’t fooled for an instant. “No need to play that game with me,” he said. “I can see you know your business. Where have you served?” he asked, meaning, in which temples had Diotima served the Goddess, for it was obvious that Diotima was temple trained.

“The Temple of Artemis Agroptera here in Athens, and the Artemision at Ephesus,” Diotima said.

“The Artemision!” Theokritos was impressed, as well he might be. The Artemision was the most prestigious temple in the entire world.

Theokritos said, “The Temple of Dionysos could use a good priestess. We have places available. I don’t suppose you’d consider switching allegiance?”

“Thank you sir, but I serve Artemis,” Diotima said.

“Well, the Huntress gains where the god of wine loses,” he said, cheerfully. “You’ll let me know if you change your mind.”

With those words and a nod, Theokritos gathered his slaves and departed.

Pythax had stood to the side. He had heard the words of Theokritos with pride for his daughter.

“Well done, lass,” Pythax said, when Theokritos had left. To my surprise he gave Diotima a hug, in public. Pythax was not a demonstrative man, unless you counted the way his guards demonstrated their clubs whenever they caught a thief.

“It was a lucky thing the goat was so complacent,” I said to Diotima.

“That would be due to the large amount of poppy juice I fed it this morning,” Diotima said. “The goat didn’t feel a thing.”

The nature of the smoke rising not far to the southwest changed. An aroma of barbecue wafted across the theater. It reminded me of lunch and made me hungry. The other men thought the same. They quickly departed, in twos and threes, no doubt to their homes for an early bite. One of the last to leave, on his own, was a young man. I had noticed him before, when he sat at the back of the audience. He had watched the ritual with an expression that struck me as rather intense.

I pointed him out to Diotima and Pythax.

“Is there something wrong with him?” she asked.

“I don’t think he’s a member of the crew,” I said. “I didn’t see him speak to anyone else.”

“It’s a public theater,” Diotima said. “Maybe he’s interested.”

“Maybe. But you and I know we have to be on the look out for a saboteur.”

Diotima gave the back of the departing stranger another look. “We could chase him down?” she said.

Pythax snorted. “No you can’t. He’s a citizen, it’s a free city, and he ain’t committed a crime.”

Those words from the city’s senior law enforcer ended the question.

“Well, nothing can go wrong at today’s rehearsal,” Diotima said “We didn’t announce the ritual until the last moment, a hundred people have been watching the stage, there hasn’t been time for the saboteur to do any damage since, and the rehearsal is about to start.”

Indeed it was. Men were already on the stage, preparing. Backstage, someone was shouting at the chorus to get in line.

In the time I had, I took a quick look at the God’s statue. I had never before seen our city’s statue of Dionysos up close. Our Dionysos was wooden, and very old. The God was sculpted in the stiff style of past generations. There were cracks where the wood had dried and shrunk. Those had been artfully hidden under recent paint. The eyes in particular looked very realistic. They were the eyes of a god who saw everything.

One thing the God saw, standing as he was at the far edge of the stage, was something that hadn’t been there yesterday. Someone had painted words onto the rear wall, out of view of the audience but fully visible to everyone backstage. They were in large, unmissable letters of commanding red paint, and they said:

NO WHISTLING!

I entered the chaos of the preparations backstage to ask what it was for.

“I just put it up,” said Akamas.

“Why?” I asked.

“You expelled the ghost, right?” he said.

“Right,” I agreed. That, after all, was what Pericles had hired me to do; to convince everyone that the ghost had been sent away.

“Well, we don’t want the ghost to come back, do we?” Akamas said.

I thought about trying to explain that there was no ghost, realized that was futile, and instead said, “No, of course not.”

Akamas said knowingly, “Well then, there was whistling when I saw the ghost. So if no one whistles, it won’t tempt the ghost to return, or bring back the bad luck with it. That’s logic, right?”

It wasn’t any logic that I recognized. But I could sense that all around me, the crew and actors were listening in on this conversation, waiting to see how I would react. If I told them to remove the sign, they might think the ghost could return.

It occurred to me that the signed command couldn’t do any harm, and if it made the actors and crew feel more comfortable and safer in the theater then it was all to the good. So I said, “Excellent thinking, Akamas. Keep up the good work.”

At that moment the chorus began, singing the opening song. I had to run across the stage to the audience seats. Sophocles shot me a look of reproach-he was directing from the front-but he was too polite to rebuke the man who had cleared the theater of ghosts.

Diotima and I had promised to keep an eye out for any recurrence of a saboteur. That was the excuse we used to settle down in the front row and enjoy the play.

SCENE 6

FALL FROM FAVOR

The play began in earnest. The chorus finished singing the opening song. They bowed in homage before the statue of the God. Even in a rehearsal this religious observance was required, lest the God be offended.

An elbow jabbed me. It was Pythax, who sat on my right. Diotima was on my left.

“What’s happening?” Pythax whispered.

“We’re sitting in an amphitheater watching a rehearsal,” I said.

“Yeah. That’s what I mean. What’s it about?” He sounded embarrassed.

I suddenly realized that Pythax, who was from Scythia to the far north of Hellas, didn’t know the great stories as we knew them.

“The play’s about the legend of Sisyphus,” I told him.

Pythax grunted. “The guy with the boulder. If that’s all that happens it’s going to be a bit boring, isn’t it?”

“The boulder is the end of the story, Pythax. It starts with Sisyphus as king of Corinth. He’s a bad king. He kills visitors to his city just for laughs. He tries to kill his brother. He seduces his own niece.”

Pythax thought about that for a moment. “The man’s an asshole,” he concluded.

My father-in-law had clear views on the proper behavior for a man.

“Zeus feels the same way you do,” I said. “Zeus sends Thanatos, the god of death, to capture Sisyphus in chains and carry him off to Hades.”

Pythax nodded approval. “Sisyphus has it coming to him.”

“Right. Only Sisyphus asks Thanatos how the chains work, and Thanatos demonstrates the chains on himself.”

Pythax looked at me as if I were insane. “You’re joking, aren’t you?” he said, then added loudly, “If one of my guardsmen screwed up an arrest that badly, I’d tear the skin off him.”

Читать дальше

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «Death Ex Machina»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «Death Ex Machina» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё не прочитанные произведения.


Ричард Матесон: Deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
Ричард Матесон
Gary Gygax: Sea of Death
Sea of Death
Gary Gygax
Gary Corby: Sacred Games
Sacred Games
Gary Corby
Отзывы о книге «Death Ex Machina»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «Death Ex Machina» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.