"Linda Nagata - Hooks, Nets & Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nagata Linda)

of his eye, speeding out to sea. Ryan saw it too; saw the connection that bound him to it. He gave one
hard yank on the tentacle as a snarl escaped his lips, and then the craft yanked him into the water. Zayder
watched him go: dark, fishy figure in a white, foaming wake.

The garbage trawler would stay out until it had accumulated its weight capacity or until thirty days had
passed, whichever came first. Given that it had only one tentacle to gather trash from the water, Zayder
knew that it would not return in Ryan's lifetime. He closed his eyes, and laid back against the deck.

It was the roar of the helicopter that roused him. He awoke to find himself strapped into the passenger
seat as the craft slowly lifted into the air. Looking down through the open doorway, he could see the
shed, the recovery chutes, the black photovoltaic panels that defined the pen, the sinuous bodies of the
collection of captive sharks. He thought he could pick out Tiburon among them. He'd taken the great
white's fins five times, and every time, he'd forced them to regrow.

He turned quickly to Commarin. "Go back," he croaked. "Go back a moment."

"There's no time! Ryan's people will be here--"

"There," Zayder said, pointing to the shattered section of deck where Tiburon had lunged at him only that
morning. The bodies of Ryan's men weren't far away. "Please, Commarin."

Reluctantly, Commarin set the craft down in the water just outside the pen. "What are you going to--"

Zayder unlatched his shoulder belt and slipped out.

"Zayder, wait!"

With Commarin yelling at his back, he stroked to the nearest trawler's berth. It was the machine that had
brought Commarin in; nearly half-charged now. Half would be enough. Zayder seized one of the
tentacles, pulled it out of the module and dragged it to the mesh. Tiburon cruised into sight. Zayder
laughed bitterly. "Looking for another taste of me, you old bastard?" He waited for the shark to pass,
then quickly wrapped the tentacle around the mesh and watched it take hold. Then he went back to the
trawler and activated it.

It hummed softly for a moment, then sped out of its housing, the tentacle paying out behind it. Zayder
ducked under the tentacle and stroked back to the idling helicopter as quickly as he could. Commarin
helped him climb aboard. "What the hell are you doing?" he demanded, as Zayder collapsed into the
seat.

"Just get us out of here, quick," Zayder muttered.

The tentacle had already payed out to its maximum reach. Zayder could see the mesh bowing outwards
under the strain. "Hit it, Tiburon," he muttered. "Hit it hard."

The shark seemed to hear him. Or perhaps its carefully cultured fury alone led it to attack the mesh. But
as the helicopter lifted, Zayder could see the long gray shadow charge the wall of the pen.

The impact caused the deck to visibly shudder. The cracked photovoltaic panel split fully in two. The
trawler lurched forward, submerged for a moment, then bobbed to the surface again as the tentacle
snapped.