"Philip E. High - Twin Planets" - читать интересную книгу автора (High Phillip E)It was clear also, by the sly looks of some of his colleagues and the embarrassed pity of others, that Beacham had related both his conquest and the subsequent "scene" to the entire staff. Denning worked for a small firm of industrial architects and, for the last week, he had been using his entire will-power to go to work. He was, he knew, a competent but uninspired architect with little hope of achieving sensational success, but at least he had been secure and almost content. Now he was a clown, a cuckold, despised by his associates and, no doubt, being reappraised by his employers. At home, it was almost as bad. Marian was either out or shut in her room and,-if they met, she called him "cave-worm." Denning realized suddenly that he was bitterly cold and opened his eyes. It was clear that his nerves——— His mind froze with his body and became blank and uncomprehending. It couldn't be, it couldn't. Deep down inside him he whimpered. There was no shelter, no bus stop, no familiar road, and a shrieking wind buffeted madly at the stationary car. It was almost dark. Stars were visible and the sky was lit at the poles by He bunked painfully. Ahead of him, a mile-wide road stretched to a horizon that looked like a burned black line against a white and crimson fire which flared like the open door of a blast furnace. Denning put his hands over his eyes. "Hell," he thought, dully. "I'm dead. I must have been killed somewhere, probably in a road accident." He looked again -at the horizon, at the long black shadows leaning in darkness from every mound and hill, at the rim of fire encompassing the visible curvature of the Earth. It looked like a sunset gone mad. Clearly, this was hell, but a Scandinavian hell of green ice and cold vipers——— Slowly his mind began to function and, by degrees, to reason. There was ice on the hood of the car, and the windshield was filigreed with frost. When you died, when you were killed, did you take your car with you? Would you be smoking the same cigarette? Somehow, none of it made sense and he was filled with an overwhelming panic. Got to get away from here, got to turn the car around and head away from that ghastly burning glare. He rumbled, shaking for the switch and turned it sharply to the right. |
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