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

would miss nothing, and she had seen him catch flies in midair, on a
summer day...

The walls of the Maze throbbed around them like the chambers of a titan's
heart. Faces flared momentarily behind crystal panels, mouths leering or
laughing. If she turned to look at the faces they dwindled, then vanished
altogether, their laughter echoing mockingly through the corridors.
Acacia glanced at her wrist monitor. She brushed a button on it and gained
an aerial view of the Crystal Maze. The Troglodykes were clearly visible as a
cluster of red dots. She could keep track of themтАФit was the only sane
thing to do. But the monitor's special ViSiOII had cost dearly.

Both teams were expected to struggle to the center of the Maze. Then,
equally drained of power, they would slug it out for the pleasure of the
audience. There might be another, better way...

She punched buttons, disabling the wrist monitor.

"What are you doing?" the slender Zulu whispered.

"Trust me," Acacia told him. "I have a plan."

"Jesus. Don't they all?"

A bone-chilling buzz vibrated the walls of the Maze, and Acacia tightened
her sword grip. It sounded like ... what? A swarm of flies? Bees?

Light flared ahead, light that moved with such impossible torpor that it
bounced back and forth between mirrors in a visible sheet. Still, it moved
much too fast for her to dodge or avoid. When it struck her face, the world
was instantly seared white. Then black specks rose in a mass, black against
a screen of white, and swarmed toward them.

Bees. Swords were useless. "Top Nun!"

The small, dark-cowled woman pushed past her to face the approaching
swarm. She raised her arms high and began to chant. "fly gevalt! For honey,
bees are good. One of your better ideas, God. Stingers on the other hand,
pfui!"

A brisk, irresistible wind flared up behind them, striking the bees just as
they reached Top Nun's hood. The entire swarm tumbled away, down the
corridor and gone.

Acacia hissed air. Top Nun had probably won them five hundred points right
there, but ... "Too close. Any stings?"

Top Nun scornfully held up unblemished arms. "Stings schmings. Am I a
shmegegge now, or what?"