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

straightening, and now the head is free. With what must have been an agony of
effort the mother whale rolls suddenly, away from the infant, making a
complete turn in the water in one swift, sharp movement. She has broken the
cord. As she finishes the turn she comes up under the infant and nudges it to
the surface. It rolls to one side and does not move. It is white underneath,
three feet long, and it is dead. It starts to sink and again the mother whale
nudges it to the surface of the water. And again. And again. Gary turns away.

He hears Shar being sick over the rail of the dock.

"They're coming!" Veronica screams.

Gary swings around in time to see Veronica snatch the rifle from Bill's limp
hands; Bill is staring at the whale as if in a daze. Veronica points the rifle
and begins to fire very fast, not at the sharks, but downward. The sleek black
whale thrashes in the water, she tries to jump, but doesn't clear the surface,
and then a paroxysm of jerks overtake her; finally she rolls over. The sharks
begin to hit her.

Veronica turns toward the house; the rifle in her hands is pointed directly at
Gary. He does not move. Her face is closed and hard, a stranger's face. She
opens her hands and the rifle falls, clatters on the shells still on the dock.
She walks past him without another glance at the sharks, at him, at anyone.

The water churns and froths; it is all red. Shar staggers away from the rail.
She reaches for Gary's arm to steady herself and he jerks away involuntarily.
Her hand would go through him, he thinks; she begins to run toward the house.

"She's afraid your wife will burn it down," Bill says in a thick, dull voice.
For a moment his face is naked; he knows. "I might burn it down myself one
day. Just might do that." He walks away, his shoulders bowed, his head
lowered.

The frenzied gulls, the boiling water, the heat of the sun, all that's real,
Gary thinks. Veronica firing the rifle, that was real. He remains on the dock
until the Coast Guard cutter comes into sight, speeding toward the dock. The
water is calm again; there is nothing for them to see, nothing for them to do.
He doesn't even bother to wave to them. One of the men is standing in the boat
scanning the water, and suddenly he points. The sharks are still in the
channel. The boat veers, makes waves as it swings around and heads out away
from the dock.

They didn't even see him, Gary knows. He is not surprised. Slowly he lifts his
hands and looks at them, and then lets them drop to his sides. In his mind is
an image of a raging inferno.

The End