"Lester Del Rey - Pursuit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Del Rey Lester)

father by becoming another of the vice-presidents in the old man's bank, with an unearned but fancy salary.
He'd preferred teaching mathematics and dabbling with a bit of research into the probable value of the ESP
work being done at Duke University. He'd explained why he hated banking; Irma had made it clear that she
really needed the mink coat no assistant professor could afford. It had been stalemate - a bitter, seven-year
stalemate, until she finally gave up hope and demanded a divorce.
He threw the clipping away, and pulled out the final bit of paper. It was a rent receipt for a cold-water
apartment on the poorer section of West End - from the price of eighteen dollars a month, it had to be a
cold-water place. He frowned, considering it. Apartment 12. That might explain why his own apartment had
been unused, though it made little sense to him. It would probably be watched by now, anyway.


HE jerked to his feet at a sound on the window-sill, but it was only a cat, eyeing the unfinished donut. He
threw the food out, and the cat dived after it. Hawkes waited for the touch of ice along his backbone to go
away. It didn't.
This time, he tried to ignore it. He picked up the paper and began going through it, looking for something
that might give him some slight clew. But there was nothing there. Only a heading on an inside page that
stirred his curiosity.


Scientist Seeks Confinement


He glanced at it, noting that a Professor Meinzer, formerly of City College, had appeared at Bellevue,
asking to be put away in a padded cell, preferably with a strait-jacket. The Professor had only explained that
he considered himself dangerous to society. No other reason was found. Professor Meinzer had been doing
private work, believed to relate to his theory thatтАж
The panic was back, thick in Hawkes' throat. He jerked back against the wall, his heart racing, while he
tried to fight it down. There was no sound from the hall or outside. He forced his eyes back to the paper.
And the paper was surrounded by a golden haze. It burst into a momentary flame as the haze flickered
out. Hawkes dropped the ashes from his clammy hands. He hadn't been burned!
You can't escape. Run. They'll get you!
He heard the outside door open, as it had opened a hundred times. But now it could only mean that more
were coming. He jerked for the open window.
Something came sailing through the air to hit the sill. Hawkes screamed weakly, far down in his throat,
before his eyes could register the fact that it was only the cat again.
Then the cat let out a horrible beginning of a sound, and its poor, half-starved body seemed to turn inside
out, with a churning motion that Hawkes could barely see. Blood and gore spattered from it, striking his face
and clothes.
 He froze, unable to move. Either they were outside in the yard, or whatever frightful weapon they used
could work through a closed door. He tried to move, first one way, then the other. His feet remained frozen.
Then steps sounded in the hallway, and he waited no longer. His legs came to sudden life, hurling him
over the carcass of the cat and outside. He went charging through the refuse, and then leaped and clawed his
way over the fence. The alley was deserted, and he shot down it, to swing right, and into another alley.
It wasn't until his muscles began to fail that he could control himself enough to stop and stumble into a
darkened spot among the garbage cans, spent and gasping for breath.


There was no sign of anyone following. Hawkes had no idea of how they could trace him - but he was
beginning to suspect that nothing was impossible, judging by the results of their weapons. For the moment,
though, he seemed to have shaken off pursuit. And the physical fatigue had apparently eased some of his