"Nick Pollotta - Bureau 13 - Doomsday Exam" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pollotta Nick)

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obtaining the written consent of the author. For more information, contact:

Wildside Press or email: [email protected]

Wildside Press edition: March 2001

“Bureau 13” is based upon the RPG “Stalking The Night Fantastic,” copyright © 1982 by TriTac
Games. www.TriTacGames.com

Join the “Bureau 13” fan club! www.Bureau-13.com

First Wildside Press edition: April 2001.

To: Scott Gordon & Diane Beuhlmeyer, Dale Denton, Rob Shapter, Martha Gallagher, Cathy,
Bird, Sue, Amy, Joe Mulligan, the LaSalle Brothers, Pat Giguerre, Laura McFeeley, Trip, Charlie
& Cathy, Ira & Sue, Rick Overton & Roger Sullivan, Elizabeth Jane Heap, Fishface, Officer Zane,
Kathleen Liptrot, Karen Liptrot, Kathy Greg, the lovely Dana Carpender, Reverend Fletcher, the
Holy Spook, and all the rest of the gang from my old coffeehouse The Grotto in Allendale, New
Jersey. Lord almighty, what good times we had.

Plus, a special thanks to Kathi Somer. She knows why.


PROLOGUE


He awoke in a cage.

Remarkable was the fact that now he could identify it as a cage, and the place about him as a laboratory.
A military research lab. The words flowed into his mind like silver water. The hairless male was
remembering everything he had ever heard and was assimilating the information with astonishing speed.

Next to him were four other cages, each holding a naked male. Two of them were pinkish in color, one
dark and one was golden with slanting eyes. But they were all males.

Stretching an arm through the iron bars, #1 was delighted to find that he could now reach the coat sleeve
of a checkered jacket hanging from the back of a wooden chair. His arms were shorter than before, but
also slimmer, so his reach had increased.

Tugging on the sleeve toppled the chair and it was within his grasp. Using the chair as a prod, #1 pushed
over a file cabinet. It hit the concrete floor with a resounding crash, but that did not matter. This late at
night there were no living guards, machines watched and patrolled the exterior grounds. But not inside.

As the file cabinet fell, the papers on top fluttered into the air, and a wire hanger skittered across the
floor. Another male grabbed a wastepaper basket and used it to bat the sliding hanger to within the reach
of a third prisoner. Quickly, #3 bent the wire into a usable form and began working on the lock of his
cage. The rest marveled at the amazing dexterity of his slim fingers and began to examine their own
hairless hands.
 In moments, the door was open. Boldly walking upright to the other side of the lab, the naked humanoid