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

both. After a moment Delia yawned and got up.

At the doorway she paused and said, "Why don't you take him?"

I looked at her then. Bernard made a snorting sound and didn't answer. I turned back to the window.
The silence was coming in along with the nighttime humidity, and I realized that I had chosen my room on
the wrong side of the building. The night air blew from the land to the sea. There was a faint breeze at the
window. The oil lamp was feeble against the pressure of the darkness beyond the netting.

"Night," Delia said at the door, and I looked at her again, nodded, and she started through, then stopped.
A high, uncanny, inhuman scream sounded once, from a long way off. It echoed through the empty city.
The silence that followed it made me understand that what I had thought to be quiet before had not been
stillness. Now the silence was profound; no insect, no rustling, no whir of small wings, nothing. Then the
night sounds began to return. The three of us had remained frozen; now Bernard moved. He turned to
Delia.

"I knew it," he said. "I knew!"

She was very pale. "What was it?" she cried shrilly.

"Panther. Either in the city or awfully close."

Panther? It might have been. I had no idea what a panther sounded like. The others were coming down
again, Evinson in the lead, Corrie and J.P. close behind him. Corrie looked less frightened than Delia, but
rattled and pale.

"For heaven's sake, Bernard!" J.P. said. "Was that you?"
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"Don't you know?" Corrie cried. At the same time Delia said, "It was a panther."

"No! Don't be a fool!" Corrie said.

Evinson interrupted them both. "Everyone, just be quiet. It was some sort of bird. We've seen birds for
three days now. Some of them make cries like that."

"No bird ever made a sound like that," Corrie said. Her voice was too high and excited.

"It was a panther," Bernard repeated. "I heard one before. In Mexico I heard one just like that, twenty
years ago. I've never forgotten." He nodded toward the net-covered window. "Out there. Maybe in one
of the city parks. Think what it means, Evinson. I was right! Wildlife out there. Naturalized, probably."
He took a breath. His hands were trembling, and he spoke with an intensity that was almost
embarrassing. Corrie shook her head stubbornly, but Bernard went on. "I'm going to find it. Tomorrow.
I'll take Sax with me, and our gear, and plan to stay out there for a day or two. We'll see if we can find a
trace of it, get a shot. Proof of some kind."

Evinson started to protest. If it wasn't his plan, he hated it. "We need Sax to find water for us," he said.