"Pat Murphy - Inappropriate Behavior" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Pat)

Inappropriate Behavior

by Pat Murphy

The Mechano:
There was a man asleep on the sand.

He should not be here. It was my island. I had just returned to my mechano and it was time for me to go
to work. He should not be here.

I studied the man through the eyes of my mechano. They were good eyes. They worked very well
beneath the water, at depths down to fifteen hundred meters. I had adjusted them for maximum acuity at
distances ranging from two inches to five feet. Beyond that, the world was a blur of tropical sunshine and
brilliant color. I liked it that way.

There had been a big storm the night before. One of the coconut palms had blown down, and the beach
was littered with driftwood, coconuts, and palm fronds.

The man didn't look good. He had a bloody scrape on his cheek, other scrapes on his arms and legs, a
smear of blood in his short brown hair. His right leg was marked with bruises colored deep purple and
green. He wore an orange life vest, a t-shirt, a pair of shorts, and canvas boat shoes.

He stirred in his sleep, sighing softly. Startled, I sent the mechano scuttling backward. I stopped a few
feet away from him.

My mechano had a speaker. I tested it and it made a staticky sound. I wondered what I should say to
this man.

The man moved, lifting a hand to rub his eyes. Slowly, he rolled over.

"Bonjour," I said through the mechano's speakers. Maybe he had come from one of the islands of French
Polynesia.




┬╖┬╖┬╖┬╖┬╖



The Man:
A sound awakened himтАФa sort of mechanical squawking.

Evan Collins could feel the tropical sun beating down on his face, the warm beach sand beneath his
hands. His head ached and his mouth was dry. His right leg throbbed with a dull, persistent pain.

Evan raised a hand to rub his eyes and winced when he brushed against a sand-encrusted scrape on his
cheek. When he rolled over onto his back, the throbbing in his leg became a sudden, stabbing pain.
Wiping away the tears that blurred his vision, he lifted his head and blinked down at his leg. His calf was
marked with bloody coral scrapes. Beneath the scrapes were vivid bruises: dark purple telling of injuries