"Resnick, Mike - Dispatches" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

Afternoon had just passed into twilight, and as I made my way through the dense
vegetation I had the distinct feeling that I was no longer alone, that an entity
at least as large as myself was lurking nearby. I couldn't imagine what it might
be, for to the best of my knowledge the tapir and the jaguar do not inhabit the
islands of the Caribbean.

I proceeded more cautiously, and in another twenty yards I came to a halt and
found myself facing a thing the size of one of our American grizzlies. The only
comparably sized animal within your experience would probably be the mountain
gorilla, but this creature was at least thirty percent larger than the largest
of the silverbacks.

The head was round, and was totally without a nose! The eyes were large, dark,
and quite widely spread. The mouth was V-shaped and lipless, and drooled
constantly.

It was brown -- not the brown of an impala or a koodoo, but rather the slick
moist brown of a sea-slug, its body glistening as if greased. The thing had no
arms as such, but it did have a number of long, sinewy tentacles, each seemingly
the thickness and strength of an elephant's trunk.

It took one look at me, made a sound that was half-growl and half-roar, and
charged. I had no idea of its offensive capabilities, but I didn't like the look
of those tentacles, so I quickly raised my Winchester to my shoulder and fired
at almost point-blank range. I could hear the smack! of the bullet as it bounced
off the trunk of the beast's body. The creature continued to approach me, and I
hurled myself aside at the last instant, barely avoiding two of its outstretched
tentacles.

I rolled as I hit the ground, and fired once more from a prone position, right
into the open V of its mouth. This time there was a reaction, and a violent one.
The thing hooted noisily and began tearing up pieces of the turf, all the while
shaking its head vigorously. Within seconds it was literally uprooting large
bushes and shredding them as if they were no more than mere tissue paper.

I waited until it was facing in my direction again and put a bullet into its
left eye. Again, the reaction was startling: the creature began ripping apart
nearby trees and screaming at such a pitch that all the nearby bird life fled in

By that point I must confess that I was looking for some means of retreat, for I
know of no animal that could take a rifle bullet in the mouth and another in the
eye and still remain not just standing but aggressive and formidable. ! trained
my rifle on the brute and began backing away.

My movement seemed to have caught its attention, for suddenly it ceased its
ravings and turned to face me. Then it began advancing slowly and purposefully
-- and a moment later it did something that no animal anywhere in the world has
ever done: it produced a weapon.

The thing looked like a sword, but when the creature pointed it at me, a beam of