"Arkady & Boris Strugatsky - Roadside Picnic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Strugatski Arkady)

There's a crack in the asphalt, if it hasn't been overgrown with bramble yet. Forty yards. Where was he
counting from? Oh, probably from the last pylon. He's right, it wouldn't be further than that from there.
Those egghead scientists were making progress. They've got the road hung all the way to the dump, and
cleverly hung at that! There's that ditch where Slimy ended up, just two yards from their road. Knuckles
had told Slimy: stay as far away from the ditches as you can, jerk, or there won't be anything to bury.
When I looked down into the water, there was nothing. This is the way it is with the Zone: if you come
back with swagтАФit's a miracle; if you come back aliveтАФit's a success; if the patrol bullets miss youтАФit's
a stroke of luck. And as for anything elseтАФthat's fate.
I looked at Kirill and saw that he was secretly watching me. And the look on his face made me
change my mind. The hell with them all, I thought. After all, what can those toads do to me? He really
didn't have to say anything, but he did.
"Laboratory Assistant Schuhart," he says. "OfficialтАФand I stress officialтАФsources have led me to
believe that an inspection of the garage could be of great scientific value. I am suggesting that we inspect
the garage. I guarantee a bonus." And he beamed like the June sun.
"What official sources?" I asked, and smiled like a fool myself.
"They are confidential. But I can tell you." He frowned. "Let's say, I found out from Dr. Douglas."
"Oh," I said. "From Dr. Douglas. What Dr. Douglas?"
"Sam Douglas," he said drily. "He died last year."
My skin crawled. You so-and-so fool. Who talks about such things before setting out? You can beat
these eggheads over the head with a two-by-four and they still don't catch on. I stabbed the ashtray with
my cigarette butt.
"All right. Where's your Tender? How long do we have to wait for him?"
In other words, we didn't touch on the subject again. Kirill phoned PPS and ordered a flying boot. I
looked over his map to see what was on it. It wasn't bad. It was a photographic processтАФaerial and
highly enlarged. You could even see the ridges on the cover that was lying by the gates to the garage. If
stalkers could get their hands on a map like that тАж but it wouldn't be of great use at night when the stars
look down on your ass and it's so dark you can't even see your own hands.
Tender made his entrance. He was red and out of breath. His daughter was sick and he had gone for
the doctor. Apologized for being late. Well, we gave him his little present: we're off into the Zone. He
even stopped puffing and wheezing at first, he was so scared. "What do you mean the Zone?" he asked.
"And why me?" However, talk of a double bonus and the fact that Red Schuhart was going too got him
breathing again.
So we went down to the "boudoir" and Kirill went for the passes. We showed them to another
sergeant, who handed us special outfits. Now they are handy things. Just dye them any other color than
their original red, and any stalker would gladly pay 500 for one without blinking an eye. I swore a long
time ago that one of these days I would figure out a way to swipe one. At first glance it didn't seem like
anything special, just an outfit like a diving suit with a bubble-top helmet with a visor. Not really like a
diver'sтАФmore like a jet pilot's or an astronaut's. It was light, comfortable, without binding anywhere, and
you didn't sweat in it. In a little suit like that you could go through fire, and gas couldn't penetrate it. They
say even a bullet can't get through. Of course, fire and mustard gases and bullets are all earthly human
things. Nothing like that exists in the Zone and there is no need to fear things like that in the Zone. And
anyway, to tell the truth, people drop like flies in the special suits too. It's another matter that maybe
many many more would die without the suits. The suits are 100 percent protection against the burning
fluff, for example, and against the spitting devil's cabbage тАж All right.
We pulled on the special suits. I poured the nuts and bolts from the bag into my hip pocket, and we
trekked across the institute yard to the Zone entrance. That's the routine they have here, so that everyone
will see the heroes of science laying down their lives on the altar of humanity, knowledge, and the holy
ghost. Amen. And sure enoughтАФall the way up to the fifteenth floor sympathetic faces watched us off.
All we lacked were waving hankies and an orchestra. "Hup two," I said to Tender. "Suck in your gut,
you flabby platoon! A grateful mankind will never forget you!"