"Diane Duane - Young Wizards 06 - A Wizard Alonel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duane Diane)

Kit looked at his pop, uncomprehending. His father went back into the living room. Kit followed.

Where the TV normally would have shown a channel number, the screen was now displaying the
number 0000566478. The picture seemed to be of a piece of furniture that looked rather like a set of
chrome parallel bars. From the bars hung a creature with quite a few tentacles and many stalky eyes,
which were not in the usual places. The creature was talking fast and loud in a voice like a fire engineтАЩs
siren, while waving around a large, shiny object that might have been an eggbeater, except that, in KitтАЩs
experience, eggbeaters didnтАЩt usually have pulse lasers built into them. Characters flashed on the screen,
both in the Speech and in other languages. Kit stood and looked at this with complete astonishment. His
father, next to him, was doing the same.

тАЬYou didnтАЩt hack into that new pay-per-view system, did you?тАЭ his father said. тАЬI donтАЩt want the cops in
here.тАЭ

тАЬNo way,тАЭ Kit said, picking up the remote and looking at it accusingly. The remote sat there in his hand
as undemonstratively as any genuinely inanimate object mightтАж except that Kit was less certain than
ever that there really were any such things as inanimate objects.

He shook the remote to see if anything rattled. Nothing did. тАЬI told you to behave,тАЭ he said in the Speech.

тАЬBut not like whatтАЭ the remote said in a sanctimonious tone.

His father was still watching the creature on the parallel bars, which pointed the laser eggbeater at what
looked like a nearby abstract sculpture. This vanished in a flare of actinic green light, leaving Kit
uneasily wondering what kind of sculpture screamed. тАЬNice special effects,тАЭ KitтАЩs father said, though he
sounded a little dubious. тАЬAlmost too realistic.тАЭ

тАЬItтАЩs not special effects, Pop,тАЭ Kit said. тАЬItтАЩs some other planetтАЩs cable.тАЭ He hit the reveal control on the
remote, but nothing was revealed except, at the bottom of the screen, many more strings of characters
flashing on and off in various colors. тАЬShopping channel, looks like.тАЭ Kit handed the remote back to his


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 Duane, Diane - Young Wizards 06 - A Wizard Alone

father.

тАЬThis is a shopping channel?тАЭ his pop said.

Kit headed for the coat hooks by the kitchen door and pulled his parka off one of them. тАЬPopi, IтАЩve got to
get to TomтАЩs. IтАЩll be back pretty soon. ItтАЩs all right to look at it, but if any phone numbers that you can
read appearтАФdo me a big favor, okay? DonтАЩt order anything!тАЭ

Kit opened the back door. Ponch threw one last longing look at what KitтАЩs mama was doing with the
chicken, then threw himself past Kit, hitting the screen door with a bang! and flying out into the
driveway.

Kit followed him. At the drivewayтАЩs end, he paused, looking up briefly. It was almost dark already; the
bare branches of the maples were showing black against an indigo sky. January was too new for any