"Paul Di Filippo - Stink Lines" - читать интересную книгу автора (Di Filippo Paul)

dumbstruck. The look on Ginger's face did not help him to recover hisvoice:
her beautiful countenance was contorted with anger. When she fixed herbaleful
gaze on Gyro, a small black storm cloud appeared over her head,discharging
tiny lightning bolts and thunder rumbles."Gyro Gearloose! I assume you're
responsible for all this! What the hell arethese, these attachments?" Ginger
was unmistakably displeased. "I picked them upas soon as I came into
town!"Gyro hesitated to name the display with its conventional rude tag.
"They're, um-- fragrance motifs! I assume you're wearing some kind of
perfume...?""Yes, of course. Calvin Klein's newest. Compost. It's part of his
whole 'WakeUp, Gaia' line."Advancing tentatively on his beloved, disinclined
to sample any odor that couldhave provoked such an abundance of stink lines,
Gyro essayed a delicate sniff.Not surprisingly, given Calvin's fine
reputation, Ginger's perfume proved to bean attractive melange of subtle
organic scents. However, some esoteric chemicalunderpinning must have provoked
the utility fog's garish reaction."Quite nice," Gyro hastened to compliment
Ginger. "You smell like a summertomato. As for the, er, fragrance motifs,
they're just a small glitch in mycreation, I assure you. I have an idea! Let's
talk outside. Perhaps the effectwill dissipate out of doors."Ginger's personal
storm cloud vanished, and she bestowed a warm smile on herchildhood friend.
Gyro hoped the smile reflected personal affection, and notjust dreams of a
Pulitzer."Okay! I need to learn all about what you've clone here, Gyro. The
whole worldneeds to learn! I can't believe you granted me an exclusive!""The
least I could do for my dearest friend," Gyro said dashingly. He
motionedtoward the door, and moved to drape an arm around Ginger's shoulders
asgentlemanly guidance. But at the last moment, he hesitated. Those stink
linesAs they left the office, Gyro looked back over his shoulder.Li'l Bulb was
doubled over in silent laughter, slapping his knee.Gyro wondered if he could
possibly sneak back for a moment and kick his Helper'sblank titanium butt.ON
THIS LOVELY sunshiny day, Duckburg was packed with tourists. Drawn by
mediareports detailing the unprecedented improvements to the familiar
Disneyattraction, visitors had swarmed in. The park employees and
Duckburg'sinfrastructure were hard-pressed to deal with the flood of visitors.
Lines hadformed outside the restrooms (from which structures, Gyro was
mortified to see,garish stink lines radiated in Hydran profusion), and also
outside the snackstands (from which sinuous good-aroma tendrils, colored in
various ice-creamshades and equipped at their tips with beckoning fingers,
slithered out toolfactorily entice)."Let's stroll down Main Street," suggested
Gyro. As they walked past variousstorefronts -- including Greer-Lish Pottery,
now no longer run by Gyro's twomothers, who had sold the business and retired
to Ariel's Palace, a floatingDisney arcology -- Gyro recounted his inspiration
and the method by which he hadendowed vanilla reality with these
Lichtensteinian bells and whistles. Gingernodded intelligently, recording his
words on her pocket-pal.Out from an alley raced a stray cat being chased by a
loose mongrel dog. Thedog's yaps were concretized as steely BB's, while the
cat's hisses were a spikeycorona.Several feet past the alley, on a small
outdoor stage, the actress wearing theconcealing outfit of duckly sorceress
Magica DeSpell went through her accustomedact, threatening her bound captives,
Huey, Dewey, and Louie. To the amazement ofthe onlookers -- and most likely to
her own -- Magica's mystical gestures wereaccompanied by actual spark trails
and fizzing lightning bolts.Shortly Gyro and his guest found themselves near