"Roger Zelazny - The Doors of His Face The Lamps of His Mouth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

"I'm sailing."

"How come?"

"Money."

"Ikky guano."

"The bar isn't doing so well and baby needs new minks."

"I repeat--"

"...And I want to get away from baby, renew my contract with
basics--fresh air, exercise, make cash..."

"All right, sorry I asked."

I poured him a drink, concentrating on H2SO4, but it didn't transmute.
Finally I got him soused and went out into the night to walk and think
things over.

Around a dozen serious attempts to land _Ichthyform Leviosaurus
Levianthus_, generally known as "Ikky", had been made over the past five
years. When Ikky was first sighted, whaling techniques were employed. These
proved either fruitless or disastrous, and a new procedure was inaugurated.
Tensquare was constructed by a wealthy sportsman named Michael Jandt, who
blew his entire roll on the project.

After a year on the Eastern Ocean, he returned to file bankruptcy.
Carlton Davits, a playboy fishing enthusiast, then purchased the huge raft
and laid a wake for Ikky's spawning grounds. On the nineteenth day out he
had a strike and lost one hundred fifty bills' worth of untested gear, along
with one _Ichthyform Levianthus_. Twelve days later, using tripled lines, he
hooked, narcotized, and began to hoist the huge beast. It awakened then,
destroyed a control tower, killed six men, and worked general hell over five
square blocks of Tensquare. Carlton was left with partial hemiplegia and a
bankruptcy suit of his own. He faded into waterfront atmosphere and
Tensquare changed hands four more times, with less spectacular but equally
expensive results.

Finally, the big raft, built only for one purpose was purchased at an
auction by ANR for "marine research." Lloyd's still won't insure it, and the
only marine research it has ever seen is an occasional rental at fifty bills
a day--to people anxious to tell Leviathan fish stories. I've been a baitman
on three of the voyages, and I've been close enough to count Ikky's fangs on
two occasions. I want one of them to show my grandchildren, for personal
reasons.

I faced the direction of the landing area and resolved a resolve.