"Brian Lumley - Necroscope 8 - Bloodwars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

Earth
 I
Outside, Inside




Returning from an early lunch at an Indian restaurant just a
five-minute walk away from E-Branch HQ in the heart of
London, Ben Trask sweated inside and out. Inside, from the
curry which was still searing his mouth and throat; outside,
from the unusually warm May weather. The noonday sun
blazed down on him from a sky as vast and blue as the Ionian
which he hoped his visitor from another world was enjoying,
because Trask sure as hell was not! In fact, ever since Zek
Foener and Nathan Kiklu (or Nathan 'Keogh', as the
Necroscope preferred to be called now) had gone off to the
Greek Islands a few days ago, Trask had been right out of
sorts with himself, and with everyone else in his top-secret
ESPionage organization.
He thought about the two, worried about them equally ...
but for different reasons. About Nathan, because he was
probably the most valuable and certainly the most - what,
unique? - man in the world; even in two worlds. And about
Zek, because he loved her. At his age (Trask snorted), finally
to have fallen in love! Not that he was ancient, and he
certainly wasn't 'past it', but . . . it compJicated matters. And
with Zek in the Greek Islands, things seemed even more
complicated. That silly old saw which has it: 'out of sight, out
of mind', had it backwards as far as Trask was concerned.
She was out of sight, all right, but she'd never been more in
his mind than right now .. .
And even as he thought it, the thought itself was like an
invocation:
Deep water ... the salt sea .. . weeds and sediment
obscuring Trask's vision - no, Zek's vision/ - and the pain in knew that the darkness was only the absence of Zek. In which
his/her chest . . . heart hammering, vision bJurring, lungs case, it might last forever.
screaming for air! Sweet Jesus, she was drowning! And she Then the elevator shuddered to a halt, the doors hissed open
was Jetting him know about it in the onJy way she could ... for and Trask stumbled out into the main corridor ...
Zek was one of the world's finest telepaths. . .. Which was тАФ flooded?
BEN! The word exploded into his mind like a bomb. TRY An inch of water went sluicing into the elevator! Now what
NOT TO FEEL .. . TOO . .. BAD .. . ABOUT . . . IT. the hoJy . ..?
'Zek!' he yelled out loud, and could actually taste the water There were espers in the corridor. Trask recognized faces
flooding into his/her mouth. without considering the amazement тАФ the relief, the .. . what?
GOO D... B Y E . . . BEN...! . . . triumph, jubilation? тАФ written on every one of them.
Trask staggered, whirled, fell, and felt his knees slam down There was a smell of ocean, seaweed, salt. The smell matched
hard on the dusty pavement. But it didn't hurt. Nothing hurt the taste of Zek in Trask's mind. So that once again he asked
except the fact that Zek's telepathic voice was dead in his himself: now what the holy . ..?
mind. And that Zek herself-? The tall, cadaverous, usually melancholy figure of the
Across the road, people were staring. A car's horn blared precog lan Goodly loomed into view; but now his eyes were