"Christopher Pike - The Immortal" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Christopher)

THE IMMORTAL
coughed. Now I was eagerly searching for help and I wouldn't have minded if it came from Saddam
Hussein. But I was at the end of the beach. The sole lifeguard was in the middle, and he had plenty of
naked women to look at on the shore, and I think he was asleep anyway. I didn't glance behind me, to
see if Helen was nearby. I didn't want to turn away from the beach for even a second because I feared I
might move a foot away from it.

I couldn't swim properly with my head out of the water, but I was too shaken to replace my snorkel and
put my face back down. The pain in my chest was like the heat from a torch blowing blue flame through
the lobes of my lungs. Honestly, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The smell of the hospital
came back to me then, the vapor of rubbing alcohol, the beep of the monitors in intensive care. It seemed
that beep had been the first thing I heard when I had awakened from my long burning dream, a
mechanical pulse in my ears, some bloodless heartthrob. Beep, beep, beep--you're alive, little girl. But it
seemed there had been a pause--I suddenly remembered this--a short one, when the beeps had
stopped, and there had been silence. ...

I felt myself sinking.

Nothing but the silent roar of cold air blowing through a wide empty space. Yes, I remembered, the beep
had definitely stopped.

"Josie!" a voice spoke in my ear.

A strong arm yanked my head up.

I blinked--I must have closed my eyes.
27

CHRISTOPHER PIKE

"God," I gasped.

It was Tom.

The shore was still a hundred yards away. Tom was swimming in place beside me. He still had his work
shirt on. How he had gotten there didn't matter, not to me. His arms were around my waist, lifting my
mouth and nose out of the water.

"Just relax," he said, slipping behind me, moving his arm under my arms. "Relax into me, Josie. I'll tow
you in."

"I'm all right," I said, coughing.

"The hell you are."

We were in shallow water a couple of minutes later. Tom helped me remove my fins and took my mask
and snorkel. He held me by the arm while I staggered onto the beach. There I collapsed on the sand,
grateful for the chance to catch my breath. I was not having a heart attack. The pain in my chest began to
diminish. In the space of five minutes I was almost fully recovered and terribly embarrassed. Helen came
running out of the water and stopped beside Tom, staring down at me.