"Gene Wolfe - Endangered Species" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

in the water, the ship was gone.

Back inside he made fresh coffee and packed Lissy's things
in her suitcase. When that was done, he drove into town
again. Ryan was still in Washington, but Tim told his secretary
where he was. "Just in case anybody reports me missing," he
said.

She laughed. "It must be pretty cold for swimming."

"I like it," he told her. "I want to have at least one more
long swim."

"All right, Tim. When he calls, I'll let him know. Have a
good time."

"Wish me luck," he said, and hung up. He got a hamburger
and more coffee at a Jack-in-the-Box and went back to the
cottage and walked a long way along the beach.

He had intended to sleep that night, but he did not. From
time to time he got up and looked out the window at the
ship, sometimes visible by moonlight, sometimes only a dark
presence in the lower night sky. When the first light of dawn
came, he put on his trunks and went into the water.

For a mile or more, as well as he could estimate the distance,
he could not see it. Then it was abruptly close, the long oars
like the legs of a water spider, the funnel belching sparks
against the still-dim sky, sparks that seemed to become new
stars.

He swam faster then, knowing that if the ship vanished he
would turn back and save himself, knowing too that if it only
retreated before him, retreated forever, he would drown. It
disappeared behind a cobalt wave, reappeared. He sprinted

and grasped at the sea-slick shaft of an oar, and it was like
touching a living being. Quite suddenly he stood on the deck,
with no memory of how he came there.

Bare feet pattered on the planks, but he saw no crew. A
dark flag lettered with strange script flapped aft, and some
vague recollection of a tour of a naval ship with his father
years before made him touch his forehead. There was a
sound that might have been laughter or many other things.
The captain's cabin would be aft too, he thought. He went
there, bracing himself against the wild roll, and found a door.

Inside, something black crouched upon a dais. "I've come