"Kate Wilhelm - Scream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

"I'll find a way. If I'm not there by Friday, don't wait. Tell Evinson I said that, Sax."

"Bernard..." I let it hang there as I pushed off and started to paddle. There wasn't a thing that I could say
to him.

I heard a shot about an hour later, then another in the afternoon, after that nothing. I got back to
headquarters during the night. No one was up, so I raided the food and beer and went to bed. The next
morning Evinson was livid with rage.

"He wouldn't have stayed like that! You left him! You did something to him, didn't you? You'll be tried,
Sax. I'll see you in prison for this." Color flooded back into his face, leaving him looking as unnaturally
flushed as he had been pale only a moment before. His hand trembled as he wiped his forehead, which
was flaky with peeling skin.

"Sax is telling the truth," Delia said. She had circles under her eyes and seemed depressed. "Bernard
wanted me to go away with him to hunt. I refused. He needed someone to help him get as far away as
possible."

Evinson turned his back on her. "You'll go back for him," he said to me, snapping the words. I shook my
head. "I'll report you. I don't believe a word of what you've said. I'll report you. You did something,
didn't you? All his work for this project! You go get him!"

"Oh, shut up." I turned to Corrie. "Anything new while I was gone?"

She looked tired too. Evinson must have applied the whip. "Not much. We've decided to take back
samples of everything. We can't do much with the equipment we brought. Just not enough time. Not
enough of us for the work."

"If you knew your business you could do it!" Evinson said. "Incompetents! All of you! This is treason!
You know that, don't you? You're sabotaging this project. You don't want me to prove my theory.
Obstacles every step of the way. That's all you've been good for. And now this! I'm warning you, Sax, if
you don't bring Bernard back today, I'll press charges against you." His voice had been high pitched
always, but it became shriller and shriller until he sounded like a hysterical woman.

I spun to face him. "What theory, you crazy old man? There is no theory! There are a hundred theories.
You think those records weren't sifted a thousand times before they were abandoned? Everything there
was microfilmed and studied again and again and again. You think you can poke about in this muck and
filth and come up with something that hasn't been noted and discarded a dozen times? They don't give a
damn about your theories, you bloody fool! They hope that Delia can come up with a radiation study
they can use. That Bernard will find wildlife, plant life that will prove the pollution has abated here. That
J.P. will report the marine life has reestablished itself. Who do you think will ever read your theories
about what happened here? Who gives a damn? All they want now is to try to save the rest." I was out
of breath and more furious than I had been in years. I wanted to kill the bastard, and it didn't help at all to
realize that it was Bernard that I really wanted to strangle. The man with the gun. Evinson backed away
from me, and for the first time I saw that one of his hands had been bandaged.

Corrie caught my glance and shrugged. "Something bit him. He thinks I should be able to analyze his
blood and come up with everything from what did it to a foolproof antidote. In fact, we have no idea
what bit him."