"Kate Wilhelm - Day Of The Sharks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

another noise, screeching and screaming.

"Hey, old buddy, you want a gin and tonic?" Bill calls from the doorway.

"I sure as hell want something," Gary says. He feels worse than he did that
morning.

Bill steps out to the terrace, shielding his eyes with his hand, looking at
gulls screaming, diving, shrieking, just off the end of the dock. "Must be a
school running," he says, and starts to walk toward the commotion.

Gary follows him slowly. They stop halfway up the dock. The whale is alongside
the structure, the entire animal clearly visible in the quiet water. Blood is
flowing from under it. The gulls wheel and scream overhead; now and then one
of them dips to the surface of the water, darts up again.

"I will be God damned!" Bill says in wonder. "She's going to give birth. For
Christ's sake!"

The whale pays no attention to the men on the dock. Now and then a long
shudder passes through her, rippling from her great black head down to her
tail. She is gleaming black, nine feet long, sleek; her blowhole opens and
closes convulsively. She shudders; her body twists. She sinks, surfaces again.

"She's in trouble," Gary says.

Bill looks at him blankly.

"It shouldn't take more than a minute or so. I read that somewhere. And she's
bleeding too much."

The stain rises in the water, spreads like a cloud. It seems to rise like
smoke signals.

"There must be someone who knows what to do," Gary says, staring at the
helpless animal. "The university?"
"It's after five, Saturday," Bill says. "The Coast Guard. I'll call them.
Someone there will know."

Gary stands on the dock, his hands clenched, watching the animal and the
distress signals dispersing through the water. He doesn't hear the others
until Shar says, "Oh, my God!" He turns to see her and Veronica staring at the
whale.

"They'll find someone to send," Bill says, hurrying across the yard. "It might
take a while, though."

The animal doesn't have a while, Gary knows. He doesn't say it. They continue
to watch in horrified fascination as the ripples that are pain reactions
spread throughout the animal regularly.