"Arkadi and Boris Strugatski. Spontaneous Reflex (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

still inside."
Evidently the alarm had already started. Not just one but three
searchlights were now exploring the walls of the institute. Snow eddies
could be seen dancing in the blue light. Cries were heard through the noise
and howling of the wind, someone was cursing. Finally the engines roared to
life, the clanking of treads could be heard. Gigantic bulldozers were
leaving the car park.
"Kostenko, look," Piskunov uttered. "Watch carefully. We are witnessing
the most remarkable chase in the history of humanity. Watch carefully,
Kostenko!"
Kostenko glanced at Piskunov sideways. It seemed to him that tears were
running down the engineers face. Then again, the tears might have been from
the wind. In the meantime the tread clanking was heard to the right of them
and not around the back as before. Bulldozers entered on the road. One could
already discern their flickering headlights. There were five of them.
"Five against one," whispered Piskunov. "It has no chance. Spontaneous
reflex will not help it this time."
And suddenly something changed. Kostenko couldnt immediately figure out
what exactly. The blizzard was still howling, clouds of dry snow were still
rushing above the ground, bulldozer engines were roaring menacingly and
confidently. However, the searchlights were not longer skimming the field.
They halted on the gates. The gates were wide open and there was no one near
them.
"What the heck?" Kostenko said.
"Could it--" Piskunov did not finish the sentence and they both started
running towards the institute. No more than two hundred meters were
separating them from the gates when Piskunov, who was ahead, ran into a man
with a rifle. The man yelped in fear and vaulted to the side, or at least
tried to, but Piskunov grabbed him by the shoulders.
"What is the matter?" he said.
The man was twisting his head topped with a security guard hat back and
forth in agitation, cursed, and finally came to his senses.
"It got out," he said. "Got out. Toppled the gates and left. It almost
squashed Makeyev. I am off to the village to get some help..."
"Where did it go?"
The security guard hesitatingly pointed left, "There, I think... Along
the road..."
"That means it will run into the bulldozers any moment now. Let's go."
What happened next they would remember the rest of their lives.
Suddenly something huge and formless loomed at them out of the whirling snow
gloom, red and green blinking lights blinded them, and a coarse voice devoid
of any modulation uttered, "Hello, how are you?"
"Utm, stop!" Piskunov yelled desperately.
Kostenko saw a security guard run up, and saw Piskunov raise his hands
and shake his fists. The gargantuan shape enveloped in steam clouds, this
ominous monster, passed him raising its branch-think legs and disappeared in
the blizzard.

*****