"Metzger-PlanetOfDolphins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Metzger Robert)

ROBERT A. METZGER - Planet Of The Dolphins

Herman didn't want to die.

The only sounds in the alley were the whisperings of rats and the distant yowl
of a cat in heat. But Herman could hear things that weren't quite there -- the
beating of waves on a distant shore, the scream of a cart wheeling gull, the
swish of kelp rolling in the swells, and always the whale songs.

The songs filled his head.

They were evil, angry songs.

And there was no escaping them.

"I'll call the cops on you if you don't pay your bill!" screamed a distant
voice.

Herman didn't care. Not paying for three stale doughnuts and a cup of coffee
which had tasted like burnt thirty-weight was of little consequence as compared
to what he faced in the alley -- for what waited for him just around the corners
of time and space. He knelt down and pushed his back up against the alley's
brick wall, all the while knowing that it offered absolutely no safety. But old
reflexes died hard. Brick and mortar were no obstacle to the things that could
twist reality. His hands shook. His stomach groaned.

"Ishmael!" he screamed.

There was no reply. But he hadn't really expected one. Ishmael would only act at
the last possible moment. That is, if he acted at all.

"Ugly son of a bitch," he whispered.

Herman sniffed the air. The salty-seaweed tang was unmistakable. The ozone stink
of dimensions ripping apart was suddenly oppressive. He shook all over and
pissed in his pants. It didn't matter. Herman looked up at the band of night sky
above him, at the dim stars and the neon glow. The Strip was less than three
blocks away, and just beyond that was Aqualand. He'd gotten too close.

And now he was going to pay for that.

"Ishmael? he screamed again as the sky above him shifted, filling with diamond
motes and rainbow eels. There was no time for another scream. The sky suddenly
turned liquid.

Splash.

Vegas had seen less than two inches of rain in the last year. It was bone-dry,
dusty, dirty, everything coated in grit and sand. But now it rained in buckets,