"Charles Stross - The Concrete Jungle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

Copyright ┬й 2004 by Charles Stross.
Reprinted with permission from The Atrocity Archives
Golden Gryphon Press, 2004, ISBN 1-930846-25-8


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.


The Concrete Jungle
by Charles Stross
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/



The death rattle of a mortally wounded telephone is a horrible thing to
hear at four o'clock on a Tuesday morning. It's even worse when you're
sleeping the sleep that follows a pitcher of iced margueritas in the
basement of the Dog's Bollocks, with a chaser of nachos and a tequila
slammer or three for dessert. I come to, sitting upright, bare-ass naked in
the middle of the wooden floor, clutching the receiver with one hand and
my head with the other тАФ purely to prevent it from exploding, you
understand тАФ and moaning quietly. Who is it? I croak into the
microphone.

Bob, get your ass down to the office right away. This line isn't secure. I
recognize that voice: I have nightmares about it. That's because I work
for its owner.

Whoa, I was asleep, boss. Can't it тАФ I gulp and look at the alarm clock
тАФ wait until morning?

No. I'm calling a code blue.

Jesus. The band of demons stomping around my skull strike up an encore
with drums. Okay, boss. Ready to leave in ten minutes. Can I bill a taxi
fare?

No, it can't wait. I'll have a car pick you up. He cuts the call, and that is
when I start to get frightened because even Angleton, who occupies a lair
deep in the bowels of the Laundry's Arcana Analysis Section тАФ but does
something far scarier than that anodyne title might suggest тАФ is liable to
think twice before authorising a car to pull in an employee at zero-dark
o'clock.

I manage to pull on a sweater and jeans, tie my shoelaces, and get my ass
downstairs just before the blue and red strobes light up the window
above the front door. On the way out I grab my emergency bag тАФ an
overnighter full of stuff that Andy suggested I should keep ready, just in
case тАФ and slam and lock the door and turn around in time to find the
cop waiting for me. Are you Bob Howard?