（外文电子版资料）Niven, Larry - Fourth Profession.docVIP

The Fourth Profession By Larry Niven ==================== The doorbell rang around noon on Wednesday. I sat up in bed and-it was the oddest of hangovers. My head didnt spin. My sense of balance was quiveringly alert. At the same time my mind was clogged with the things I knew: facts that wouldnt relate, churning in my head. It was like walking the high wire while simultaneously trying to solve an Agatha Christie mystery. Yet I was doing neither. I was just sitting up in bed, blinking. I remembered the Monk, and the pills. How many pills? The bell rang again. Walking to the door was an eerie sensation. Most people pay no attention to their somesthetic senses. Mine were clamoring for attention, begging to be tested-by a backflip, for instance. I resisted. I dont have the muscles for doing backflips. I couldnt remember taking any acrobatics pills. The man outside my door was big and blond and blocky. He was holding an unfamiliar badge up to the lens of my spy-eye, in a wide hand with short, thick fingers. He had candid blue eyes, a square, honest face-a face I recognized. Hed been in the Long Spoon last night, at a single table in a corner. Last night he had looked morose, introspective, like a man whose girl had left him for Mr. Wrong. A face guaranteed to get him left alone. Id noticed him only because he wasnt drinking enough to match the face. Today he looked patient, endlessly patient, with the patience of a dead man. And he had a badge. I let him in. William Morris, he said, identifying himself. Secret Service. Are you Edward Harley Frazer, owner of the Long Spoor Bar? Part-owner. Yes, thats right. Sony to bother you, Mr. Frazer. I see you keep bartenders hours. He was looking at the wrinkled pair of underpants I had on. Sit down, I said, waving at the chair. I badly needed to sit down myself. Standing, I couldnt think about anything but standing. My balance was all-conscious. My heels would not rest solidly on the floor. They barely touched. My weight was all on