"Kate Wilhelm - And the Angels Sing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

At the bed he reached out and gently pulled back the blanket. One of -her- hands clutched it
spasmodically. The hand had four apparently boneless fingers, long and tapered, very pale. Mary
Beth exhaled too long and neither of them moved for what seemed minutes. Finally she reached out
and touched the darkness at the girl's shoulder, touched her arm, then her face. Abruptly she
pulled back her hand. The girl on the bed was shivering harder than ever, in a tighter ball that
hid the many folds of skin at her groin.

"It's cold," Mary Beth whispered.

"Yeah." He put the blanket back over the girl.

Mary Beth went to the other side of the bed, squeezed between it and the wall and carefully pulled
the bedspread and blanket free, and put them over the girl also. Eddie took Mary Beth's arm and
they backed out of the bedroom. She sank into one of the chairs he had arranged and automatically
held out her hand for the drink he was pouring.

"My God," Mary Beth said softly after taking a large swallow, "what is it? Where did it come
from?"



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He told her as much as he knew and they regarded the sleeping figure. He thought the shivering had
subsided, but maybe she was just too weak to move so many covers.

"You keep saying it's a she," Mary Beth said. "You know that thing isn't human, don't you?"

Reluctantly he described the rest of the girl, and this time Mary Beth finished her drink. She
glanced at her camera bag, but made no motion toward it yet. "It's our story," she said. "We can't
let them have it until we're ready. Okay?"

"Yeah. There's a lot to consider before we do anything." Silently they considered. He refilled
their glasses, and they sat watching the sleeping creature on his bed. When the lump flattened out
a bit, Mary Beth went in and lifted the covers and examined her, but she did not touch her again.
She returned to her chair, very pale, and sipped bourbon. Outside, the wind moaned, but the
howling had subsided, and the rain was no longer a driving presence against the front of the
house, the side that faced the sea.

From time to time one or the other made a brief suggestion.

"Not radio," Eddie said.

"Right." said Mary Beth. She was a stringer for NPR. "Not newsprint," she said later.

Eddie was a stringer for AP. He nodded.

"It could be dangerous when it wakes up," she said.