"Timothy Zahn - The Green and the Gray" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

alternative is to block the living room door, and we certainly look out that one more oftenтАФ"
"Shh," Roger cut her off, looking around. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Caroline asked.
"It was like a cough," Roger told her, frowning. Aside from two more couples a block up the street,
there wasn't a single human being in sight. "A very wet cough, like you get when you've got fluid in
your lungs."
"I hate that sound," Caroline said, shivering.
"Yeah, but where did it come from?" Roger persisted, still looking around. All the shops in the
immediate area were closed, there were no alleys, and the nearby doorways were too well
illuminated by the streetlights for anyone to be hiding there. He couldn't see any open windows
above them, either.
"I don't see anyone," Caroline said. "Maybe you imagined it."
I didn't imagine anything, Roger groused silently to himself. But he couldn't argue against the fact
that there was no one in sight. "Maybe," he said, taking her arm and starting forward again, the back
of his neck starting to creep in a way that had nothing to do with the wind. "Come on, let's go."

They continued south, past the torn-up pavement and flashing yellow lights at 103rd, heading for
102nd. Ahead on their left, he could see the theater he and Caroline sometimes went to, its marquee
and windows dark. Had they started closing early on Wednesday nights?
"Roger, what's wrong with the lights?" Caroline asked quietly.


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20The%20Green%20and%20the%20Gray.htm (9 of 424)22-12-2006 15:57:21
The Green and the Gray

He frowned. Focusing on the theater, he hadn't even noticed that the light around them had gone
curiously dim. The street lamps had turned into children's nightlights, putting out hardly any glow at
all and looking like they were having to strain to manage even that much. The headlights of the
passing cars seemed unnaturally bright, the doorways now resting in deep puddles of shadow.
Ahead, as far down Broadway as he could see, all the streetlights had gone equally dim.
He looked back over his shoulder. The lights had dimmed just behind them, too, but only for a single
block. North of 103rd, they were blazing away normally.
It was probably something to do with the road construction, of course. Something to do with torn-up
streets and damaged power lines.
But then why hadn't he noticed it as they approached? Why had the lights only now gone so oddly
dim?
And why had they dimmed just as he and Caroline had entered this particular stretch of sidewalk?
Caroline had gone silent, gripping his arm a little tighter. Setting his teeth, Roger kept them moving,
staying as far away from the shadowy doorways as he could. Just six blocks to go, he reminded
himself firmly. It would be no worse than a nighttime walk in the woods, with the added bonus that
there were no tree branches to trip over. "So what did you think of the play?" he asked.
It took Caroline a second to shift mental gears. "I liked it a lot," she replied, her mind clearly miles
away from the safe and artificial world of university experimental theater. "How about you?"
"The acting was pretty decent," he said. "Though the Latin lover's accent was a little thick for my
taste."
"You mean Cesar?" Caroline said, frowning. "He wasn't Latin, he was French."
"I know," Roger said. "I was using Latin lover in the generic sense."
"I didn't know there was a generic sense for Latin lover," Caroline said. "Are you meaning a 'when in
Rome' sort of thing?"
"No, it's more a general melodramatic expression," he said. They were halfway down the block now,