"Bradbury, Ray - Sound of Thunder, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bradbury Ray)

"Yes," said the man behind the desk. "Were lucky. If
Deutscher had gotten in, we'd have the worst kind of
dictatorship. There's an anti-everything man for you, a
militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual.
People called us up, you know, joking but not joking. Said if
Deutscher became President they wanted to go live in 1492.
Of course it's not our business to conduct Escapes, but to
form Safaris. Anyway, Keith's President now. All you got to
worry about is"
"Shooting my dinosaur," Eckels finished it for him.
"A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Thunder Lizard, the damnedest
monster in history. Sign this release. Anything happens
to you, we're not responsible. Those dinosaurs are hungry."
Eckels flushed angrily. "Trying to scare me!"
"Frankly, yes. We don't want anyone going who'll panic
at the first shot. Six Safari leaders were killed last year, and
a dozen hunters. We're here to give you the damnedest
thrill a real hunter ever asked for. Travelling you back sixty
million years to bag the biggest damned game in all Time.
Your personal check's still there. Tear it up."
Mr. Eckels looked at the check for a long time. His
fingers twitched.
"Good luck," said the man behind the desk. "Mr. Travis,
he's all yours."
They moved silently across the room, taking their guns
with them, toward the Machine, toward the silver metal
and the roaring light.
First a day and then a night and then a day and then a
night, then it was day-night-day-night-day. A week, a
month, a year, a decade! A.D. 2055. A.D. zoic). 1999! 1957!
Gone! The Machine roared.
They put on their oxygen helmets and tested the intercoms.
Eckels swayed on the padded seat, his face pale, his
jaws stiff. He felt the trembling in his arms and he looked
down and found his hands tight on the new rifle. There
were four other men in the Machine. Travis, the Safari
Leader, his assistant, Lesperance, and two other hunters,
Billings and Kramer. They sat looking at each other, and
the years blazed around them.
"Can these guns get a dinosaur cold?" Eckels felt his
mouth saying.
"If you hit them right," said Travis on the helmet radio.
"Some dinosaurs have two brains, one in the head, another
far down the spinal column. We stay away from those.
That's stretching luck. Put your first two shots into the eyes,
if you can, blind them, and go back into the brain."
The Machine howled. Time was a film run backward.
Suns fled and ten million moons fled after them. "Good
God," said Eckels. "Every hunter that ever lived would envy
us today. This makes Africa seem like Illinois."