"Michael Swanwick - Shezro with Tyrannosaur" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swanwick Michael)

"Shezro with Tyrannosaur" by Michael Swanwick

Schezro with Tyrannosaur by Michael Swanwick




A keyboardist was playing a selection of ScarlottiтАЩs harpsichord sonatas, brief pieces one to three minutes long,
very complex and refined, while the Hadrosaurus herd streamed by the window. There were hundreds of the
brutes, kicking up dust and honking that lovely flattened near-musical note they make. It was a spectacular
sight.

But the hors dтАЩoeuvres had just arrived: plesiosaur wrapped in kelp, beluga smeared over sliced maiasaur egg,
little slivers of roast dodo on toast, a dozen delicacies more. So a stampede of common-as-dirt herbivores just
couldnтАЩt compete.

Nobody was paying much attention.

Except for the kid. He was glued to the window, staring with an intensity remarkable even for a boy his age. I
figured him to be about ten years old.

Snagging a glass of champagne from a passing tray, I went over to stand next to him. "Enjoying yourself, son?"

Without looking up, the kid said, "What do you think spooked them? Was it aтАФ?" Then he saw the wranglers in
their jeeps and his face fell. "Oh."

"We had to cheat a little to give the diners something to see." I gestured with the wine glass past the herd,
toward the distant woods. "But there are plenty of predators lurking out thereтАФtroodons, dromaeosaurs . . .
even old Satan."

He looked up at me in silent question.

"Satan is our nickname for an injured old bull rex thatтАЩs been hanging around the station for about a month,
raiding our garbage dump."

It was the wrong thing to say. The kid looked devastated. T. rex a scavenger! Say it ainтАЩt so!

"A tyrannosaur is an advantageous hunter," I said, "like a lion. When it chances upon something convenient,
believe you me, itтАЩll attack. And when a tyrannosaur is hurting, like old Satan isтАФwell, thatтАЩs about as savage
and dangerous as any animal can be. ItтАЩll kill even when itтАЩs not hungry."

That satisfied him. "Good," he said. "IтАЩm glad."

In companionable silence, we stared into the woods together, looking for moving shadows. Then the chime
sounded for dinner to begin, and I sent the kid back to his table. The last hadrosaurs were gone by then.

He went with transparent reluctance.