"Zelazny, Roger - DEVILCAR" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

sign of any other vehicle about.
"Find its track," he said, "and start chasing it."
There was an explosion up the hill behind him, within the
mountain. The ground trembled, then it was still once more.
"There are so many tracks..." she said.
"You know the one I want. The biggest, the widest, the hottest!
Find it! Run it down!"
"I think I have it, Sam."
"Okay. Proceed as rapidly as possible for this terrain."
Murdock found a squeeze bottle of bourbon and took three gulps.
Then he lit a cigarette and glared into the distance.
"Why did you miss it?" he asked softly. "Why did you miss it,
Jenny?"
She did not answer immediately. He waited.

Finally, "because he is not an `it' to me," she said. "He has done
much damage to cars and people, and that is terrible. But there is
something about him, somethingЧnoble. The way he has fought the whole
world for his freedom. Sam, keeping that pack of vicious machines in
line, stopping at nothing to maintain himself that wayЧwithout a
masterЧfor as long as he can remain unsmashed, unbeatenЧSam, for a
moment back there I wanted to join his pack, to run with him across
the Gas Road Plains, to use my rockets against the gates of the Gas
Forts for him...But I could not mono you, Sam. I was built for you.
I am too domesticated. I am too weak. I could not shoot him though,
and I misfired the rockets on purpose. But I could never mono you,
Sam, really."
"Thanks," he said, "you over-programmed ashcan. Thanks a lot!"
"I am sorry, Sam."
"Shut upЧNo, don't, not yet. First tell me what you're going to
do if we find `him'."
"I don't know."
"Well think it over fast. You see that dust cloud ahead of us as
well as I do, and you'd better speed up."
They shot forward.
"Wait till I call Detroit. They'll laugh themselves silly, till I
claim the refund."
"I am _not_ of inferior construction or design. You know that. I
am just more..."
"'Emotional'," supplied Murdock.
"...Than I thought I would be," she finished. "I had not really
met many cars, except for young ones, before I was shipped to you. I
did not know what a wild car was like, and I had never smashed _any_
cars beforeЧjust targets and things like that. I was young and..."
"`Innocent'," said Murdock. "Yeah. Very touching. Get ready to
kill the next car we meet. If it happens to be your boyfriend and you
hold your fire, then he'll kill us."
"I will try, Sam."
The car ahead had stopped. It was the yellow Chrysler. Two of
its tires had gone flat and it was parked, lopsided, waiting.