"Nick Pollotta - Bureau 13 - Judgment-Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pollotta Nick)

by Nick Pollotta


water. Instinctively, I scratched at my stomach only an inch
away from the S&W .357 Magnum in my belly holster. I was
also a Bureau paranoid.
тАЬBecause,тАЭ he said smiling, his tooth-filled mouth
stretching from ear to ear. тАЬThat means there will be no
witnesses!тАЭ
Not enough for a court of law, but good enough for me. I
whipped out the old Smith & Wesson and put two thundering
rounds into the dingy right at the water level. There was a
blur to my right and a fishing knife thudded into the guy's
face. Snarling, I turned around to curse the idiot who had
done that. Guy might just have been a harmless loony. No
sense killing him immediately. However, the expression on
my friendsтАЩ faces made me turn again and I dropped my jaw
along with the rest of them.
Standing on the water, the guy was already almost twice
his original size, his torn clothes falling off him in strips. The
skin was changing into scales, horns were sprouting from his
head, and his face was splitting in half along the line of the
knife, forming a vertical mouth.
тАЬTunafish!тАЭ Raul yelled, rolling up his loose sleeves.
We tightly closed our eyes. Even through the lids, I could
faintly see the blinding light burst that our number two wizard
generated. However, Water Boy was obviously not cognizant
of our code phrases and screamed like a banshee. Made me
wonder if the thing was a remote relative of the Irish
monster?
Opening my eyes, I found тАЬNo WitnessesтАЭ clawing at the
four eyes on stalks dangling from its bulbous head, its
28
Judgement Night: Bureau 13 Book 1
by Nick Pollotta


leathery wings beating the water beneath its cloven hooves
into a froth. This bastard was definitely on its way to winning
the Ugliest Monster of the Year contest.
I pumped a couple more rounds into the amorphous mess,
doing no appreciable damage, when the boat suddenly
lurched backwards to the sound of creaking oars.
тАЬPull!тАЭ Mindy ordered, fear quaking her voice. тАЬIn the name
of God, pull for your lives!тАЭ
Now that was genuinely strange. I didn't know of anything
that Mindy was afraid of, aside from agency paperwork. That
was when I noticed that the shore appeared a lot closer than
it had a few minutes ago. A hard lump formed in my throat.
The water level was lowering. Our guest was draining the