"Paul Preuss - Re-Entry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Preuss Paul)

Holder stood still a moment, then walked back toward the front of the dais,
leaving the ghostly shape behind him. His voice was suddenly mournful. "In a
way, I've spent my life trying to find the answer to that question. I've even
written treatises on the so-called feral tribes of Darwin. But I still cEont
know." In the darkness Holder's expression was unread-t$fe. "Unhappily, I was
never able to discuss it with our t|Bmitive' friend, here."
Bruneau's ears pricked up. Holder's voice sounded dejected, but peculiarly
insincere. What mischief was he about?
Holder started the film. The running man disappeared instantly into the
undergrowth. The tyrannosaur bellowed and exploded from the trees, taking three
frighteningly rapid strides forward. Muffled curses and squeals of fright came
from the audience in the HumboWs lounge.
The odd daintiness of the animal's bird-like gait was more than offset by the
visible, audible effects each time a clawed foot hit the ground: the entire
scene shook dizzily with each thudding step, betraying the unseen laser
recorder's vibrations on its tripod. The nightmare animal stopped in the middle
of the mossy clearing, the red expressionless eyes atop its skull staring
fixedly from under bony orbital ridges. Its mouth hung open, and its breath came
in liquid grunts.
Bruneau shivered. He was awfully glad now that Holder's film was mere sound and
picture. Even in his imagination, the stench of the carnivorous dinosaur's hot,
wet breath was almost overpowering. Then a horrible thought occurred to BruneauтАФ
just as the great reptile's head twisted and darted forward into the brush.
There was a horrible scream, indisputably human.
"Oh, really, Phil, you mustn't!" Bruneau protested loudly, taking a step
forward.
"For those of you who are still with me," said Holder, "have a look at this...."
Then Bruneau realized he'd been completely fooled; Holder had not been sober for
an instant! The whole episode was a boozy practical joke. Nauseated groans and
shouts failed to deter the intoxicated doctor, who continued to expound. Bruneau
lunged toward the stage to interfere, but found his way blocked by members of
the audience who were in a hurry to leave.
Inside Holder's "home movie" too, there were running figures. Bruneau had time
to make out a boy in his early teensтАФHolder himself?тАФrunning toward the
thrashing in the bushes, and a middle-aged man who suddenly caught up to the boy
and cuffed him out of the way.
Bruneau was almost to the dais now. The fern leaves towered over his head. And
then the tyrannosaur stood erect. It, too, towered over Bruneau, so high and
awesome that Bruneau almost stumbled in fright. The red gobbets that dripped
from its jaws resembled nothing like a man.
"... incidentally demonstrates the answer to a question that puzzled
paleontologists for ever-so-long, before the re-creation of rex," Holder was
remarking, nonchalantly. "Scientists could conceive of no possible adaptive
purpose for the creature's tiny forelegs...."
"Phil, for God's sake!" Bruneau shouted.
"But they are quite useful, as it turns out," said Holder.
The carnosaur ducked its head and lifted a pan- of short, curving little
foreclaws to its mouth. Then it began ....
"Picking its teeth," Bruneau murmured. "Oh, God." He jumped onto the dais and
walked toward Holder. "Phil, please...."