"Mike Resnick - Hunting The Snark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

the animals at the water hole spooked and ran off thirty or forty yards, raising
an enormous cloud of reddish dust. When they couldn't spot where the noise had
come from, they warily returned to finish drinking.

"You wait here," he whispered. "I will find the predators."

I nodded my agreement. I'd watched Chajinka stalk animals on a hundred worlds,
and I knew that I'd just be a hindrance. He could travel as silently as any
predator, and he could find cover where I would swear none existed. If he had
to freeze, he could stand or squat motionless for up to fifteen minutes. If an
insect was crawling across his face, he wouldn't even shut an eye if it was in
the insect's path. So maybe he regarded worms and insects as delicacies, and
maybe he had only the vaguest notion of personal hygiene, but in his element --
and we were in it now -- there was no one of any species better suited for the
job.

I sat down, adjusted my contact lenses to Telescopic, and scanned the horizon
for the better part of ten minutes, going through a couple of smokeless
cigarettes in the process. Lots of animals, all herbivores, came by to drink.
Almost too many, I decided, because at this rate the water hole would be nothing
but a bed of mud in a few days.

I was just about to start on a third cigarette when Chajinka was beside me
again, tapping me on the shoulder.

"Come with me," he said.

"You found something?"

He didn't answer, but straighted up and walked out into the open, making no
attempt to hide his presence. The animals at the water hole began bleating and
bellowing in panic and raced off, some low to the ground, some zig-zagging with
every stride, and some with enormous leaps. Soon all of them vanished in the
thick cloud of dust they had raised.

I followed him for about half a mile, and then we came to it: a dead catlike
animal, obviously a predator. It had a tan pelt, and I estimated its weight at
300 pounds. It had the teeth of a killer, and its front and back claws were
clearly made for rending the flesh of its prey. Its broad tail was covered with
bony spikes. It was too muscular to be built for sustained speed, but its
powerful shoulders and haunches looked deadly efficient for short charges of up
to one hundred yards.

"Dead maybe seven hours," said Chajinka. "Maybe eight."

I didn't mind that it was dead. I minded that its skull and body were crushed.
And I especially minded that there'd been no attempt to eat it.

"Read the signs," I said. "Tell me what happened."