"Peter Watts - Bulk Food" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watts Peter)

first formal agreement with the Matriarch of J-Pod.
On the other side of the gallery, past two-inch plexi, the
pinkness in the water is already starting to fade.
Doug skids to a halt in front of an orca family tree, no less
boring for its catchy backlit-pastel-on-black color scheme. He
scans the headings:
14 Peter Watts

G12 Pod
G12



G8 G27 [EXIT] G33

There. Between G27 and G33. Evidently, municipal building
codes require an emergency exit here. For some reason the
aquarium has incorporated it into the Orca Family Tree, right there
in plain sight as the law requires, but subtle, unobtrusive. In fact,
damn near invisible to anyone who hasnтАЩt actually read the
genealogies line-by-line.
This is DougтАЩs secret passage. HeтАЩs done his homework; the
blueprints are on file at City Hall, accessible to anyone who cares
to look. On the other side of this invisible door, backstage
corridors run off in three separate directions, each servicing a
different gallery. All of them, eventually, end up outside. One of
them opens into the gift shop.
Doug pushes at a spot on the wall. It swings open. Behind him,
a muffled poomf filters through from the main tank, followed by
an inhuman squeal. Doug dives through the doorway without
looking back.
Turn right. Run. Backstage, the gallery displays are ugly
constructions of fiberglass and PVC. Every object gurgles or
hums. Salt crusts everything. DougтАЩs foot slips in a puddle. He
starts to go over, grabs at the nearest handhold. A rack of hip
waders topples in his stead. Left. Run. A row of filter pumps
tears by on one side, a bank of holding tanks on the other. A
dozen species of quarantined fish eye his transit with glassy
indifference.
He rounds a corner. An unexpected barrier catches his shin.
Doug sprawls across a stack of loose plywood. Splinters bury
themselves in the balls of his hands.
тАЬFuck!тАЭ He scrambles to his feet, ignoring the pain. There are
worse things than pain. There's the wrath of Alice if he comes
home empty-handed.
Bulk Food 15

Right there: a wood-paneled door. Not one of the crappy green
metal doors that are good enough for the fishfeeders and janitors,
but a nice oak job with a brass handle. ThatтАЩs got to be the