"James Tiptree Jr. -10000 Light Years From Home" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tiptree James Jr)

face. Soon the old highway left the cliffs and cut inward between wind-sliced turrets. There were higher
crests beyond these to her right, the hills that had once been called Harar. Then she was past the
outcrops. The road stretched straight across another mesa top. There were ruins here, adobe shells,
ditches, littered yards under occasional huge eucalyptus trees. Metal fragments lay on the roadside. A
rusted gas pump stood like a man as she jogged by. Dust blew. She was beginning to limp.
Now and then the wolf ranged alongside her, then slipped aside to watch her pursuer pass. The man
was on the straight behind her now, coming on doggedly, veering from the strange shapes by the road.
Pursuer and pursued slowed to walking as the light began to change. The distance between them shrank
steadily, faster.
The girl was hobbling when she reached a ravine where the road lay in wreckage. A little time
gained here, but not much; She was spent. Beyond the wrecked bridge she limped between walls. The
road curved around a dead village, ran into an old square. Here the girl turned aside and fell to her knees.
Behind her the man was already leaping through the fallen bridge. It was sunset. The wolf appeared,
grunting urgently. She shook her head, panted. He snarled and began to yank at her clothing, shouldering
her up.
 When the man came into the square she was standing alone, her body brilliant in the level light. He
stopped, eyes rolling white at the alien walls. Then he took a step toward her and was suddenly in
charging onrush. She stood quiet. He leaped, arms grappling her, and she went down under him into the
hard dirt.
As they fell together a jet of gas came from between her lips into his face. He convulsed, crushed
her. The wolf was on them, dragging the flailing giant off by the arm while the girl coughed and gagged.
When the man had flopped to inertness the wolf pounched over her and nosed her head.
Her gagging changed timbre, she wrapped both legs around the wolf and tried to roll him. He
roughed her face with his tongue, planted his paw in her navel and pulled free. When she quieted he was
holding the transmitter in front of her face. A snoring noise was coming from the man on the ground.
They looked together at the big body. He was nearly twice the wolf’s weight.
“If we tie him to you and drag him he’ll get all torn,” the girl said. “Do you think you can drive him?”
The wolf laid the transmitter down and grunted non-committally, frowning at the man.
“We’re only at that place west of Goba,” the girl told the transmitter. “I’m sorry. He’s much
stronger than we thought. You—wait!”
The wolf was in the road, standing tense. She listened too, heard nothing... then a shiver in the
ground, a tiny rumble. The transmitter began to squawk.
“It’s all right!” the girl told it. “Bonz is here!”
“What do you mean, Bonz is there?” demanded the distant voice.
“We can hear him coming. He must have got through the break.”
“Damn idiots,” said the voice. “You’re all wasting energy. Base out.”
Girl and wolf squatted together in the dusk beside the snoring man. She prodded at him briefly with
her booted foot. Her teeth began to chatter.
The throbbing turned into a clashing roar and a fan of light swung around the far end of the square.
Behind the light was the dark nub of a small tractor cab. It was towing a flat wagon.
The girl stood up, swung her hair.
“Bonz! Bonz, we’ve got one!”
The tractor rattled up beside them and a pale head leaned out. The dashlight showed a boy’s face, a
bony knife-edged version of the girl’s.
“Where is he?”
“Here. Look how big he is!”
The tractor’s light swung, flooded the supine man.
“You’ll have to get him on the wagon,” the boy said. His eyes were hollow with fatigue. He made no
move to leave the cab.
The wolf was at the side wall of the wagon, pulling a latch. The wall clanged down to form a ramp to