"Arkadi and Boris Strugatski. Spontaneous Reflex (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

Carefully closing the door behind him in his usual manner, Utm made a
step forward and stopped. Everything around him was saturated with sounds,
movements, emissions. The night was radiating an magical vibrant
kaleidoscope of radio waves. A low building with wide windows protected by
iron bars stood thirteen and a half meters ahead. Its walls emitted bright
infrared light. A low intense humming carried from inside. Millions of
snowflakes whirled in the air. They landed on the Utms corrugated sides
heated by the reactor, instantaneously melted and evaporated.
Utm turned his head left and right and decided that the nearest
interesting object to investigate could only be the low building ahead. He
found the entrance right away noticing the walkway on the windward side. The
building was surrounded by short fur trees which distracted Utm, who briefly
went to investigate one of them. He then opened the door and entered.
Two men sitting around the table in the small narrow room jumped up
upon his arrival and stared at him in horror. He closed the door behind him
- and even locked it - and stopped before them.
"How are you?" he said.
"Comrade Piskunov?" one of the man asked baffled.
"Comrade Piskunov is out. Can I take a message?" Utm inquired
dispassionately.
Utm was not interested in people. His attention was attracted to a
small furry being which was pressing itself against the wall in the corner.
"Warm, alive, strong smell, not a Man," Utm decided.
He continued, "Hello, how are you?"
"Grrrrr," the being replied with daring from it's desperation, while
bearing sharp white teeth and pressed itself further into the corner.
Utm was fascinated by the dog and completely ignored the fact that the
security guards nimbly barricaded themselves behind the table and a closet
and began to draw their weapons.
The dog shot past Utm miserably whimpering with its tail between its
legs. But Utm was much quicker than the dog. He was more agile than any
animal in the world, no matter how swift. His body made a lightning-fast
noiseless half-turn, and a long telescoping outstretched hand grabbed the
dog across its body. At the same moment a shot sounded: one of the security
guards lost his nerve. The bullet glanced of Utms armored back with a clink
and stuck in the wall on the rebound. Plaster crumbled.
"Sidorenko, as you were!" the other security guard yelled.
Utm let go off the trembling dog and stared at the two men, both pale
but very determined, pointing their guns at him. He sniffed curiously.
Unknown smell of smoke-free gunpowder flowed in the air. The dog took cover
at the feet of the security guards, but Utm already lost his interest in it.
He turned and headed for the next door which was adorned with a picture of
skull and bones pierced with a red lightning bolt. The security guards,
frozen in amazement, watched his pincer-like fingers manipulate the hemmed
drum of the lock. The door opened.
Then both of them came to and dashed after him, "Stop! Back! Not
allowed!"
They clung to his armored sides forgetting everything else in the world
in horror from the sheer thought what this steel monster could do to the
transformer. Utm did not even notice them. All their efforts did not have