"Roger Zelazny - The Stainless Steel Leech" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

Fritz is a vampire, which is a terrible and tragic thing. He is so undernourished
that he can no longer move about, but he cannot die either, so he lies in his
casket and dreams of times gone by. One day, he will ask me to carry him
outside into the sunlight, and I will watch him shrivel and dim into peace and
nothingness and dust. I hope he doesn't ask me soon.

We talk. At night, when the moon is full and he feels strong enough, he tells me
of his better days, in places called Austria and Hungary, where he, too, was
feared and hunted.

".. But only a stainless steel leech can get blood out of a stone - or a robot," he
said last night. "It is a proud and lonely thing to be a stainless steel leech - you
are possibly the only one of your kind in existence. Live up to your reputation!
Hound them! Drain them! Leave your mark on a thousand steel throats!"

And he was right. He is always right. And he knows more about these things
than I.

"Kennington!" his this, bloodless lips smiled. "Oh, what a duel we fought! He
was the last man on earth, and I the last vampire. For ten years I tried to drain
him. I got at him twice, but he was from the Old Country and knew what
precautions to take. Once he learned of my existence, he issued a wooden stake
to every robot - but I had forty-two graves in those days and they never found
me. They did come close, though..

"But at night, ah, at night!" he chuckled. "Then things were reversed! I was the
hunter and he the prey!

"I remember his frantic questing after the last few sprays of garlic and
wolfsbane on earth, the crucifix assembly lines he kept in operation around the
clock - irreligious soul that he was! I was genuinely sorry when he died, in
peace. Not so much because I hadn't gotten to drain him properly, but because
he was a worthy opponent and a suitable antagonist. What a game we played!"

His husky voice weakened.

"He sleeps a scant three hundred paces from here, bleaching and dry. His is the
great marble tomb by the gate. Please gather roses tomorrow and place them
upon it."

I agreed that I would, for there is a closer kinship between the two of us than
between myself and any `bot, despite the dictates of resemblance. And I must
keep my word, before this day passes into evening and although there are
searchers above, for such is the law of my nature.

.----.---.---.

"Damn them! (He taught me that word.) Damn them!" I say. "I'm coming up!
Beware, gentle `bots! I shall walk among you and you shall not know me. I shall