"Larry Niven & Steve Barnes - The California Voodoo Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

"Just checking." She shucked her pack. "All right. Let's see what we've got."

Acacia drew her sword, balancing it easily in one hand. Her Physical rating
was high enough she could actually perform a fifteen-foot tightrope walk
without Dream Park assistance. But in winds, and over a gorge, and in a
GameтАФthat made it a little scary.

She stepped out on the line...


Tammi stretched out a long, muscular arm and shushed her companions.
There was a bridge ahead of her, a catwalk rising on crisscrossing wooden
supports that rose up from a deep gorge. The bridge led nowhere,
terminating against a
sheer crystal cliff. A perfect location for an ambush, Garcia-style.

She looked at her wrist sensor and noted Acacia Garcia's movement
pattems. Acacia was approaching the center of the Maze, but taking the
long way around. Tammi's esteemed opponent was famous for direct
assaults. The apparent
indirection had to be a trick. To assume anything else would be suicide.

She called to the thin young man behind her. "Mouser, what do you think?"

He touched his goggles absently. "I can see a door," he said, his voice
adolescently nasal. "I think I can riddle the lock, or break it."

Mouser tested the bridge and then walked out into the center. It swung
gently from side to side. Below it glistened a field of fire blossoms. They
were much like morning glories and grew on long, glassy stems. Their
petals unwound slightly, hissing.

"Kiss my pistil," Mouser hissed back.

"Mouser!" Tammi warned.

"Sorry, Mom," he said sheepishly, only mildly chagrined. His Gaming
buddies at Medford Academy would howl when they heard that line. He was
sorry that he'd gotten the gender wrong, not that he'd said it. "Kiss my
stamen" had like
zero impact.

The bridge was narrow enough that he had to be cautious with every
footfall. Above him, through the ceiling, he saw the sun, or something that
could have been the sun, rising. As it rose, the petals of the flowers
opened. Tiny flaming
mouths shimmered within them.

As he watched, the mouths spit threads of fire. Flames began to crawl up
the bridge's support struts.