"Robin Wilson - To the Vector Belong..." - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Robin)

been low to begin with and now it takes everything off his debit card to pay out the
charge.

He toggles on and the line of Oakland policemen parts for themтАФLindstrom
notes they are now reinforced by California Highway Patrol officers and, he is sure,
federal units somewhere off in the darknessтАФand forms an escort for them up the
deserted Nimitz Freeway. Beyond them are the TV cameras with their low-light, long
lenses recording them in detail and a news-hungry populace that will have Al for
dinner every night for weeks. And probably me too, Lindstrom thinks.

And then Mars lights flicker as far ahead as he can see across the Bay Bridge
toward the temporary isolation facility on Turk Street where he is to deliver Al.
Nothing has so home in on him the enormity of the event as the fact that the Bay
Bridge has been cleared of traffic during rash hour. As he drives, his passenger
avidly peering into the approaching canyons of San Francisco, Lindstrom thinks
about his pension and his precarious position.

How in hell am I going to get out of this one?


JUST AFTER lunch the next day, Wednesday, Lindstrom stands at a lectern before
a dozen scientists in a darkened room in what was once the Saks Fifth Avenue store
in the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto. Here the Stanford Research Institute is
housing the just-formed Extraterrestrial Task Force, already referred to by its staff as
тАЬET-EF.тАЭ A few people wear white or green lab coats. Lindstrom has the only
necktie. In his left hand is a control button; in his right a laser pointer. On the screen
behind him is a brilliantly illuminated full-figure video freeze of Al nude, side and
front. His musculature is spectacular, bordering on but not quite unhuman; there is a
thoroughly human look of embarrassment and resignation on his face.
 тАЬI represent the Immigration and Naturalization Service,тАЭ says Lindstrom,
тАЬand I have been asked to report to you on the disposition of the extraterrestrial that
we have in custody.

тАЬAs you may know, Al or Earl is the fifth extraterrestrial reported anywhere in
the world. Two have been noted in Third World settings тАФ in Indonesia and
BrazilтАФ and both have disappeared, or at least evaded custody. Three have been
found in the Bay Area since early December. Two have returned almost immediately
to the organism or device which brought them, which weтАЩve been calling the
doughnut. This is a toroidal biological mass that we have been unable to inspect
closely enough to know much about. In each case, the doughnut appears without
traceable access a hundred meters off the western extremity of an Oakland pier at an
altitude of two meters above the decking. When the doughnut reaches the end of the
pier, the тАФ uh тАФ alien drops to the deck encased in a placenta-like material and
engages in a rapid series of actions to free himself. In the first two incidents spaced
about a week apart, some sort of failure occurred and the alien disappeared in a
fairly messy manner back into the center of the mass.

тАЬAs you have seen from video coverage,тАЭ Lindstrom continues in the stilted
lecture room voice he acquired during a teaching stint at the FBI academy when it
was still in Quantico, тАЬthis mass dilates and then contracts around the alien and then