"Connie Willis - Bellweather" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

looked down the hall at the line of doors. They were all closed, and, presumably, locked, but there was a line of light un
the middle one on the left.

I repositioned the box, which was getting heavier by the minute, lugged it down to the light, and knocked on the d
No answer, but when I tried the knob, the door opened onto a jungle of video cameras, computer equipment, opened b
and trailing wires.

"Hello," I said. "Anybody here?"

There was a muffled grunt, which I hoped wasn't from an inmate of the zoo. I glanced at the nameplate on the doo
"Dr. O'Reilly?" I said.

"Yeah?" a man's voice from under what looked like a furnace said.

I walked around to the side of it and could see two brown corduroy legs sticking out from under it, surrounded by
litter of tools. "I've got a box here for Dr. Turnbull," I said to the legs. "She's not in her office. Could you take it for her?

"Just set it down," the voice said impatiently.

I looked around for somewhere to set it that wasn't covered with video equipment and coils of chicken wire.

"Not on the equipment," the legs said sharply. "On the floor. Carefully."

I pushed aside a rope and two modems and set the box down. I squatted down next to the legs and said, "It's ma
'perishable.' You need to put it in the refrigerator."

"All right," he snapped. A freckled arm in a wrinkled white sleeve appeared, patting the floor around the base of
box.

There was a roll of duct tape lying just out of his reach. "Duct tape?" I said, putting it in his hand.

His hand closed around it and then just stayed there.

"You didn't want the duct tape?" I looked around to see what else he might have wanted. "Pliers? Phillips
screwdriver?"

The legs and arm disappeared under the furnace and a head emerged from behind it. "Sorry," he said. His face wa
freckled, too, and he was wearing Coke-bottle-thick glasses. "I thought you were that mail person."

"Flip," I said. "No. She delivered the box to my office by mistake."

"Figures." He pulled himself out from under the furnace and stood up. "I really am sorry," he said, dusting himself
don't usually act that rude to people who are trying to deliver things. It's just that Flip..."

"I know," I said, nodding sympathetically.

He pushed his hand through his sandy hair. "The last time she delivered a box to me she set it on top of one of the
monitors, and it fell off and broke a video camera."

"That sounds like Flip," I said, but I wasn't really listening. I was looking at him.