"Howard Waldrop - Flying Saucer Rock & Roll" - читать интересную книгу автора (Waldrop Howard)

"There's an outage all down the line. They're going to switch the two
hundred K's over to the Buffalo net and reroute them back through here.
Check all the load levels. Everything's out from Schenectady to Jersey
City."

When everything looked ready, Jack signaled to Jim.

Jim called headquarters, and they watched the needles jump on the
dials.

Everything went black.

Almost everything.

Jack hit all the switches for backup relays, and nothing happened.

Almost nothing.

Jim hit the emergency battery work lights. They flicked and went out.

"What the hell?" .asked Jack.

He looked out the window.

Something large and bright moved across a nearby reservoir and
toward the changing station.

"Holy Mother of Christ!" he said.
 Jim and Jack went outside.

The large bright thing moved along the lines toward the station. The
power cables bulged toward the bottom of the thing, whipping up and
down, making the stanchions sway. The station and the reservoir were
bathed in a blue glow as the thing went over. Then it took off quickly
toward Manhattan, down the straining lines, leaving them in complete
darkness.

Jim and Jack went back into the plant and ate their lunches.

Not even the phone worked anymore.


It was really black by the time Sparks got his gear set up. Everybody in
the crowd was talking about the darkness of the city and the sky. You
could see all over the place, everywhere you looked.

There was very little noise from the city around the loading area.

Somebody had a radio on. There were a few Jersey and Pennsy stations
on. One of them went off while they listened.