"Mel Gilden - Zoot Marlow 2 - Hawaiian UFO Aliens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilden Mel)

Will made one explosive laugh. Bingo just shook her head. Neither of them explained the joke.
A fat guy wearing a too-little T-shirt that said, DAMN, I'M GOOD, and a purple bathing suit he was
funnelled into, picked up a handful of sand and threw it at the hat. In any crowd you can always count on
somebody trying to see how much damage he can do.
In this case, the sand did no damage at all. It hit something solid and invisible a few feet away from
the side of the hat, and slid to the ground. A lot of people threw sand after that, but as far as the hat was
concerned, they might as well have been blowing kisses.
Carefully, as if they were trying not to hurt an injured animal, the surfers and a few other beach types
began to dig down the invisible face of the force wall.
Bill ran down the beach and stirred up a convention of seagulls. Calling out insults, one of the birds
glided across and landed on the hatтАФon the actual hat, not on the force wallтАФand then flew away.
Waves washed up onto the hat, leaving a wet smudge like the shadow of a reclining woman. I think it
was the fact that only people and their tools were affected by the force wall that, more than anything else,
led to Captain Hook's mishap. I don't think it was an accident, no. At least, not so far as the hat was
concerned.
Bill came back and helped us watch Thumper and Mustard, but not too closely. They were still
digging furiously, evidently having a contest among themselves to see who could fling the most sand into
the air. The girls and most of the crowd backed off and watched. A few people even walked away. If the
hat wasn't going to whistle 'God Bless America,' what good was it? Meanwhile, Captain Hook prowled
around the hat like a hyena sizing up a dead zebra.
Thumper and Mustard were down to the hard-packed, wet sand now, and the going was much
slower. Thumper looked back over his shoulder at Whipper Will and said, 'I don't know, dude. This wall
thing goes to Cronulla Beach.'
'Is that far?' I said.
'Australia,' Bingo said. 'The other side of the planet.' Captain Hook marched over to us as if we'd
personally offended him in some wayтАФyou never knewтАФand said angrily, 'That thing really works me
hard. I mean, I am seriously dogged.' He turned around and looked at the hat. As Whipper Will spoke,
Captain Hook casually threw sand at it.
Will said, 'Don't be a full hank, Holmes. That thing doesn't even know you're here.'
'Yeah?' said Captain Hook, throwing the sand a little harder.
'Sure. It's just a fancy piece of drift wood.'
'Yeah?' said Captain Hook, throwing the sand even harder.
'Look, dudeтАФ' Whipper Will began, but was cut off when Captain Hook suddenly swept an old
brown bottle off the beach and angrily heaved it at the top hat. Without even a 'boink?' the bottle
bounced off, followed immediately by a jab of red lightning that hit Captain Hook in the chest and
crawled over him like nervous electric snakes, dropping him hard to the sand. He writhed there for a
moment, then the red lightning seemed to burrow into the ground. Captain Hook didn't move.
We forgot about the hat and stared at the silent form as we stepped forward. I wondered if the red
snakes were gone for good or only hiding momentarily. Whipper Will knelt over Captain Hook and
listened to his chest. 'Still alive,' Will said softly. Captain Hook leaped to his feet with his hands in the air
as if he'd just won a race. Surprised, Will fell back onto the sand.
The Captain was smiling. It wasn't his nasty smile or his sarcastic smile or even the smile he used
when he had one up on you.
It was good natured. It had a lot of charm. Something was wrong. I think we all felt it. Even Bill
looked at me and said, 'Huh?'
Captain Hook declaimed, 'Good afternoon, ladies and germs,' and waited. Nothing happened. We
were all too astonished to do or say anything.
Gamely, Captain Hook went on. 'Anybody have twenty cents for a phone call?' He looked at the
group earnestly, as if willing to be delighted by any answer. 'No?' he said, and strode over to me, I stood
my ground, wondering if this was the moment when my curiosity would kill me.