"Brian Lumley - E-Branch 1 - Defilers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

a time restriction your fingers turn to thumbs, and bits of wood go skittering in all directions.
You may not have been pressuring me, Ben, but I have. And the future doesn't much like it."


file:///G|/rah/Brian%20Lumley/Brian%20Lumley%20-%20E-Branch%201%20-%20Defilers.txt (19 of 263) [2/13/2004 10:10:51 PM]
 file:///G|/rah/Brian%20Lumley/Brian%20Lumley%20-%20E-Branch%201%20-%20Defilers.txt

"You've seen nothing?" Trask was obviously disappointed.
But the precog was chewing his top lip as he answered, "I have seen . . . things. Glimpses,
flashes, daydreams-call them what you will-but I'm reluctant to call them the future. I'm as prone
to deia vu feelings, dreaming, and par-amnesia as anyone else, and that could be all these things
are. They haven't been those very definite scenes that send me reeling, the ones that can't be
anything else but the future, and usually a dangerous future. So naturally I'm reluctant to send
anyone off on a wild goose chase. Not when we might need all of the manpower we've got. . . and
not that I'd know where to send him anyway."
"You'd better explain," said Trask. "Just exactly what are these things that you've been seeing.
Anything has to be better than nothing."
"Not necessarily," Goodly sighed. "But, if you insist:
"I've seen-I don't know-shapes, figures. Black-robed figures, drifting or floating. And I've seen
something sinking, deeper and deeper into groaning abysses of water. I've seen ... a warren of
tunnels and burrows, like gigantic wormholes in the earth, all filled with loathsomeness . . .
morbid mucus in a cosmic sinus. I've seen hooded eyes, watching, and a weird shadow approaching,
getting closer every time I see it. . . ."
The precog fell silent. He gave a sharp, involuntary shudder and blinked eyes that had seemed
momentarily blind or vacant, until they refocussed on Trask. And:
"That's it," he said. "That's what I've seen . . ."
But Trask had fallen under the spell of the other's words, so that he, too, had to give himself a
shake before he could say, "And you call that nothing?"
"Nothing we can do anything with," the precog answered. "I mean, it has no application."

"But it's not nothing," said Trask. "It's something, and I want you to write it down. And from now
on you and David-and you can pull in one of our telepaths, but not Liz-I want you working
together. In a special map room, yes. And then if these things-especially these eyes, or this
shadow-if they come any closer, perhaps you'll see them that much more clearly."
"Come closer?" Goodly looked more gaunt than ever. "But if they really are the future, that's one
thing that's guaranteed. You see, the future never stands still but comes closer all the time . .
."
When Trask was alone again he got on to the duty officer, asking him, "Paul, where's Lardis
Lidesci? I didn't see him at my little pep talk."
"He's where you sent him a week ago, presumably," Paul Garvey answered. "Downstairs in the hotel
with his wife. Or maybe they're outdoors in the park. They miss the wild. Lardis was sitting on
the desk when I relieved the night duty officer this morning. He said he wants to get back to work-
any work! Says he thinks he'll go mad doing nothing."
"What about the knock on the head that maniac Peter Miller gave him in Australia? And then the
complication of that infection he picked up on our flight home?"
"The infection has just about cleared up. A shot or two of penicillin was all it took. Lardis is
lucky it wasn't worse. We have infections here that they never even heard of in Sunside."
"True," Trask nodded. "But they've got one I know of that's a lot worse than all of ours put
together! Anyway, send someone to find him will you? I never did find the time to ask him about
that job in Greece. Also, while I'm waiting, could you tell Liz Merrick and Jake Cutter to come