"Philip Jose Farmer - WOT 5 - The Lavalite World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

So he'd put on his bike clothes and wheeled out on it, speeding along in
the night, ready to outrun the pigs if they saw him. Callister was waiting for
him. The other bodyguards weren't around. He didn't ask Callister where they
were, since the boss didn't like questions. But Callister volunteered, anyway.
The others were in a car which had been wrecked while chasing a man and a
woman. They were not dead, but they were too injured to be of any use.

Callister then had described the couple he was after, but he didn't say
why he wanted them.

Callister had stood for a moment, biting his lip. He was a big handsome
honky, his curly hair yellow, his eyes a strange bright green, his face
something like the movie actor's, Paul Newman.

Abruptly, he went to a cabinet, pulled a little box about the size of a
sugar cube from his pocket, held it over the lock, and the door swung open.

Callister removed a strange-looking device from the cabinet. McKay had
never seen anything like it before, but he knew it was a weapon. It had a
gunstock to which was affixed a short thick barrel, like a sawed-off shotgun.

"I've changed my mind," Callister said. "Use this, leave your .45 here.
We may be where we won't want anybody to hear gunfire. Here, I'll show you how
to use it."

McKay, watching him demonstrate, began to feel a little numb. It was the
first step into a series of events which made him feel as if he'd been
magically transformed into an actor in a science-fiction movie. If he'd had
any sense, he would have taken off then. But there wasn't one man on Earth
that could have foreseen that five minutes later he wouldn't even be on Earth.

He was still goggle-eyed when, demonstrating the "beamer", Callister had
cut a chair in half. He was handed a metal vest. At least, it looked and felt
like steel. But it was flexible.

Callister put one on, too, and then he said something in a foreign
language. A large circular area on the wall began glowing, then the glow
disappeared, and he was staring into another world.

"Step through the gate," Callister said. He was holding a hand weapon
disguised as a revolver. It wasn't pointed at McKay, but McKay felt that it
would be if he refused.

Callister followed him in. McKay guessed that Callister was using him as
a shield, but he didn't protest. If he did, he might be sliced in half. They
went through another "gate" and were in still another world or dimension or
whatever. And then things really began to happen. While Callister was sneaking
up on their quarry, McKay circled around through the trees. All of a sudden,
hell broke loose. There was this big red-haired guy with, believe it or not, a
bow and arrows.