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

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 "Shezro with Tyrannosaur" by Michael Swanwick

The Cretaceous Ball was our big fund-raiser, a hundred thousand dollars a seat, and in addition to the silent
auction before the meal and the dancing afterward, everybody who bought an entire table for six was entitled to
their very own paleontologist as a kind of party favor.

I used to be a paleontologist myself, before I was promoted. Now I patrolled the room in tux and cummerbund,
making sure everything was running smoothly.

Waiters slipped in and out of existence. YouтАЩd see them hurry behind the screen hiding the entrance to the time
funnel and then pop out immediately on the other side, carrying heavily laden trays. Styracosaurus medallions
in mastodon mozzarella for those who liked red meat. Archaeopteryx almondine for those who preferred white.
Raddichio and fennel for the vegetarians.

All to the accompaniment of music, pleasant chitchat, and the best view in the universe.

Donald Hawkins had been assigned to the kidтАЩs tableтАФthe de Cherville Family. According to the seating plan
the heavy, phlegmatic man was Gerard, the money-making paterfamilias. The woman beside him was Danielle,
once his trophy wife, now aging gracefully. Beside them were two guestsтАФthe CadigansтАФwho looked a little
overwhelmed by everything and were probably a favored employee and spouse. They didnтАЩt say much. A sullen
daughter, Melusine, in a little black dress that casually displayed her perfect breasts. She looked bored and
restlessтАФtrouble incarnate. And there was the kid, given name Philippe.

I kept a close eye on them because of Hawkins. He was new, and I wasnтАЩt expecting him to last long. But he
charmed everyone at the table. Young, handsome, politeтАФhe had it all. I noticed how Melusine slouched back
in her chair, studying him through dark eyelashes, saying nothing. Hawkins, responding to something young
Philippe had said, flashed a boyish, devil-may-care grin. I could feel the heat of the kidтАЩs hero-worship from
across the room.

Then my silent beeper went off, and I had to duck out of the late Cretaceous and back into the kitchen, Home
Base, year 2140.

There was a Time Safety Officer waiting for me. The main duty of a TSO is to make sure that no time
paradoxes occur, so that the Unchanging wouldnтАЩt take our time privileges away from us. Most people think that
time travel was invented recently, and by human beings. ThatтАЩs because our sponsors donтАЩt want their
presence advertised.

In the kitchen, everyone was in an uproar. One of the waiters was leaning, spraddle-legged and arms wide
against the table, and another was lying on the floor clutching what looked to be a broken arm. The TSO
covered them both with a gun.

The good news was that the Old Man wasnтАЩt there. If it had been something big and hairyтАФa Creationist bomb,
or a message from a million years uplineтАФhe would have been.

When I showed up, everybody began talking at once.

"I didnтАЩt do nothing, man, this bastardтАФ"