"Harlan Ellison - Troublemakers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ellison Harlan)

now.тАЭ

The Adjutant rose hastily to his feet, slid the chair back an inch, and saluted briskly. Turning on his heel,
he left the office, a frozen frown on his face. For the first time since heтАЩd gotten this cushy job with the
General, it looked as though there was going to be work involved. Worse, it might be dangerous.

Captain Harold Alberts, Adjutant, was terribly frightened, for the first time since heтАЩd been appointed to
the GeneralтАЩs staff.

The saucers seemed to be holding a tight formation. They hovered, and lowered not an inch. They were
separated by a half mile of empty space on either side, but were easily close enough to pick off anyone
flying between them . . . should that be their intent.

They were huge things, without conning bubbles or landing gear, without any visible projections of any
sort. Their skins were of some non-reflective metal, for it could be seen that the sun was glinting on them,
yet was casting no burst of radiance. It made the possibility that this was some super-strong metal seem
even more possible. They were silent behemoths, around which the air lanes of the world had had to be
shifted. They did not move, nor did they show evidence of life. They were two cymbals, laid dead
face-on-face.

They were simplythere , and what sort of contesting could there be to that?

Every few hours, at irregular intervals (with no pattern that could be clocked or computed) one of the
ships would disappear. Over the wasted sands of the Sahara, or above the crowded streets of Shanghai,
or high over the neon of Las Vegas, one of the ships would waver for an instant, as though being washed
by some invisible wave, thenflick! and it would be gone. And in that moment the sun would stream
through, covering the area that had been shadowed by the elliptical darkness. Shortly thereafter тАФ but
only sometimes shortly; occasionally a full hour or two would elapse тАФ another ship would appear in the
vanished oneтАЩs spot. It would not be the same ship, because the one that had disappeared might have
been ringed with blue lines, while this new one had a large green dot at its top-center.

But there it was, right in place, a half mile away from each neighbor on either side, and casting that fearful
shadow along the ground.

Storm clouds formed above them, and spilled their contents down. The rain washed across their smooth,
metallic tops, and ran off, to soak the ground a mile beneath.

They made no move, and they offered no hostility, but тАФ as the hardware dealer in San Francisco said
тАФ тАЬMy God, the things couldblast us at any second!тАЭ And тАФ as the Berber tribesman, talking to his
dromedary-mounted fellows said тАФ тАЬEven if they hang silent, they come fromsomewhere, and IтАЩm
frightened, terribly frightened.тАЭ

So it went, for a week, with the terror clogging the throats of Earthmen around the world. This was not
some disaster that happened in Mississippi, so the people of Connecticut could read about it and shake
their heads, then worry no more. This was something that affected everyone, and a great segment of the
EarthтАЩs populationlived under those sleek metal vehicles from some far star.

This was terror incarnate.

Getting worse with each passing day.