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

He gripped the tip of my nose gently with one hand while he held the other under one of my nostrils.
Something tinkled into his cupped hand, and a second later he held up two dimes. He laughed and said,
'You know, sir, you ought to be more careful where you keep your change.' He waited again. The fat guy
in the T-shirt applauded slowly as if he were beating time. He looked more bored than entertained.
While Captain Hook enjoyed the applause and Bill stared up my nose, Whipper Will said, 'That's not
the Captain I know.'
'His interest in magic is new, too, I'll bet,' I said.
'You're not just whistling "Wipeout", bro.' Then in a voice that was almost too soft for me to catch,
Will said, 'The science of any sufficiently advanced race is indistinguishable from magic.'
'No lie, friend,' I said. 'Back off, Bill.' I didn't believe in magic, but I did believe in force walls. I'd
seen them before. Never on a heap like this, but then, there were a lot of force walls I hadn't seen. The
fact that this hat looked like the UFO in the smudge of a photo in the Interstate Eyeball just made the
situation more interesting. Nobody else had noticed the similarity. But then, nobody else had my
experience with intersteller heaps.
'Thank you, thank you,' said Captain Hook. 'For my next trickтАФ'
Whatever Captain Hook was going to say next was drowned out by an approaching siren. We
looked around and saw a police car booming along the beach, kicking up clouds of sand. I came up
alongside Whipper Will and said, 'You'd better get the Captain out of here. Chances are he'll just confuse
the issue, whatever it is.'
Will nodded and took Captain Hook by the arm. Captain Hook looked surprised but still amiable.
Will said, 'Come on. Captain, I got some hats that need rabbits removed.'
'Hey, great,' Captain Hook said and went along quietly, Bingo took his other arm, which didn't hurt
either. As they walked up the beach, the police car came to a stop a few yards away from us and the
siren died. A couple of guys in plain clothes got out and walked our way. Behind the wheel, a uniformed
cop picked his teeth while he waited.
One of the plainclothes guys was tall and the other one was short, for an Earthman. The tall one had
straight blond hair lying across his forehead like rays of sunlight. He had the pleasant, open expression of
a farmer who was having a lot of success rotating his crops. He never took his left hand out of the pocket
of his overcoat. The short guy had a red face and a big red nose that was veined like a map of roads that
nobody drove much. He was a peppery little guy who thought he was tough. I knew he thought he was
tough because when he planted himself in front of the top hat, he looked around with disgust and then
spit.
In a strident voice, the short, plainclothes guy said, 'I'm Police Detective Cliffy. This is Sergeant
Robinson.' He took a long time studying the top hat, as if it had a written message just for him all over it.
His lips even moved. He said, 'What the hell is going on here?' and looked at me. There were at least a
dozen people within interrogating distance, but he looked at me.
I said, 'This thing showed up on the beach.'
'What is it?' Police Detective Cliffy said as if he thought I ought to know.
'It looks like a spaceship to me. But I'm no expert,' I said and shrugged.
Cliffy spit on the ground again. In a mild voice, Robinson said, 'If you don't know, just say so.'
'I thought if I didn't know, Cliffy would spit in my eye.'
'I hate tough guys,' Cliffy said and vigorously rubbed one finger under his nose. He chuckled at a
funny idea he had. 'Maybe you aren't so tough. And maybe you're a guy who knows a spaceship when
he sees one.'
'Not many spaceships in Bay City,' I said. 'I was just cracking wise.'
'Cracking wise,' said Bill.
'Yeah, well, this is a public beach and this thing can't stay here.' He nodded at Robinson, who began
to wave his hands at the crowd as if he were shooing chickens. 'All right, folks. Move along. Nothing
more to see here.' People began to mill around and back away, but nobody actually left. Robinson
looked at Cliffy as if he expected help.