"Rajnar Vajra - Passing the Arboli Test" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vajra Rajnar)

conveniently on the towel-rack.
"What are you doing?" Tina asked nervously.
"Watch me and do the same thing with the other towel."
I'd grasped the soft fabric in the middle with both hands and twisted
hard in opposite directions, applying pressure until a knot appeared in the
towel's center. Then I simply kept twisting until I had a rock-hard flexible
braid. I held the thing in my right hand and tapped it on my left palm.
Perfect.
"Voila!" I announced.
"What do you call these things?"
"Beats the hell out of me. It's just something I picked up as a -- look
out!"
The doorknob was slowly turning.
I gestured Tina over to the left side of the door, which opened outward
to our right. I wanted to be the first person our unreal intruders would see.
I'd back up. Presumably, the attackers would follow. I'd attack one and my new
partner could clobber the other from behind. Only a _game_.
The door abruptly swung open -- hard -- and two monsters rushed into
the room. As I'd hoped, they ignored Tina, heading straight for me.
If this is how humans look to Arboli, it's a wonder they'd bothered to
hang around for eight years. These mockups were unskilled caricatures at best.
Their heads were twisted lumps with asymmetrical eyes; their bodies were blobs
of dark gray jelly. Real ugly. One had three arms and his buddy had four. To
the Arboli, I suppose, the distinction was trivial. Each arm held a long,
gleaming knife.
In a panic, I swung my club. It struck Three Arms on its left temple.
The sound wasn't much louder than a door-knock, but the creature's skull caved
in horribly.
Unluckily, the monster fell into me, knocking me backwards. I lost my
balance and learned that tile is a bad thing to fall on. Dazed, I jumped up as
fast as I could. I was too slow. Four Arms, further crushing its buddy's head
by stepping on it, was already too close. I had no room to swing my weapon.
I saw the flash of a knife coming toward my chest and tried to move out
of the way. I was only partially successful. The blade sliced across my
collarbone and left shoulder. I only felt a mild stinging, but in an instant,
I was drenched in my own blood. The knife was heading toward my belly and this
time, I knew it wouldn't miss.
Suddenly, I heard a powerful ringing thud. Four Arms, like his comrade,
fell against me. This time, the head hit me squarely in the solar plexus. I
found myself on the floor again, unable to breath, and could only watch
helplessly as the monster rose up and spun toward Tina. She'd apparently
abandoned the towel, hoisted the tank-lid, and struck Four Arms on its slimy
back. A gray, translucent arm moved like a deformed cobra and Tina jumped
backwards, crying out in pain. Fresh blood on her right shoulder....
The bathroom had grown an ugly smell: coppery from blood and foul from
the swampy breath of our assailants.
Four Arms turned its attention back my way. I'd just managed to finally
snatch a shallow breath and still couldn't move. I watched a lumpy arm rise
up, but before the knife could strike, Tina hoisted the lid and smashed it
down squarely on the thing's grotesque head. And that was definitely that.