JК
The Stars My Destination ( Tiger! Tiger! ) :: Bester Alfred
Страница: 63 из 164He'll be a curio for your zoo, Baker; I wish to God I'd let you have him!»
The door of the operating theater opened and two orderlies wheeled out a trolley on which Foyle lay, twitching slightly. His entire head was one white globe of bandage.
«Is he conscious?» Quatt asked Baker.
«I'll handle this,» Jisbella burst out. «I'll talk to the son of a…Foyle!» Foyle answered faintly through the mask of bandage. As Jisbella drew a furious breath for her onslaught, one wall of the hospital disappeared and there was a clap of thunder that knocked them to their feet. The entire building rocked from repeated explosions, and through the gaps in the walls uniformed men began jaunting in from the streets outside, like rooks swooping into the gut of a battlefield.
«Raid!» Baker shouted. «Raid!»
«Christ Jesus!» Quatt shook.
The uniformed men were swarming all over the building, shouting:
«Foyle! Foyle! Foyle! Foyle!» Baker disappeared with a pop. The attendants jaunted too, deserting the trolley on which Foyle waved his arms and legs feebly, making faint sounds.
«It's a goddamn raid!» Quatt shook Jisbella. «Go, girl! Go!»
«We can't leave Foyle!» Jisbella cried.
«Wake up, girl! Go!»
«We can't run out on him.»
Jisbella seized the trolley and ran it down the corridor. Quatt pounded alongside her. The roaring in the hospital grew louder: «Foyle! Foyle! Foyle!»
«Leave him, for God's sake!» Quart urged. «Let them have him.»
«It's a lobo for us, girl, if they get us.»
«We can't run out on him.»
They skidded around a corner into a shrieking mob of post-operative patients, bird men with fluttering wings, mermaids dragging themselves along the floor like seals, hermaphrodites, giants, pygmies, two-headed twins, centaurs, and a mewling sphinx. They clawed at Jisbella and Quatt in terror.
«Get him off the trolley,» Jisbella yelled.
Quail yanked Foyle off the trolley. Foyle came to his feet and sagged. Jisbella took his arm, and between them Sam and Jiz hauled him through a door into a ward filled with Baker's temporal freaks . . .subjects with accelerated time sense, darting about the ward with the lightning rapidity of humming birds and emitting piercing batlike squeals.
«Jaunte him out, Sam.»
«After the way he tried to cross and scalp us?»
«We can't run out on him, Sam. You ought to know that by now. Jaunte him out. Caister's place!»
Jisbella helped Quatt haul Foyle to his shoulder.
The door of the operating theater opened and two orderlies wheeled out a trolley on which Foyle lay, twitching slightly. His entire head was one white globe of bandage.
«Is he conscious?» Quatt asked Baker.
«I'll handle this,» Jisbella burst out. «I'll talk to the son of a…Foyle!» Foyle answered faintly through the mask of bandage. As Jisbella drew a furious breath for her onslaught, one wall of the hospital disappeared and there was a clap of thunder that knocked them to their feet. The entire building rocked from repeated explosions, and through the gaps in the walls uniformed men began jaunting in from the streets outside, like rooks swooping into the gut of a battlefield.
«Raid!» Baker shouted. «Raid!»
«Christ Jesus!» Quatt shook.
The uniformed men were swarming all over the building, shouting:
«Foyle! Foyle! Foyle! Foyle!» Baker disappeared with a pop. The attendants jaunted too, deserting the trolley on which Foyle waved his arms and legs feebly, making faint sounds.
«It's a goddamn raid!» Quatt shook Jisbella. «Go, girl! Go!»
«We can't leave Foyle!» Jisbella cried.
«Wake up, girl! Go!»
«We can't run out on him.»
Jisbella seized the trolley and ran it down the corridor. Quatt pounded alongside her. The roaring in the hospital grew louder: «Foyle! Foyle! Foyle!»
«Leave him, for God's sake!» Quart urged. «Let them have him.»
«It's a lobo for us, girl, if they get us.»
«We can't run out on him.»
They skidded around a corner into a shrieking mob of post-operative patients, bird men with fluttering wings, mermaids dragging themselves along the floor like seals, hermaphrodites, giants, pygmies, two-headed twins, centaurs, and a mewling sphinx. They clawed at Jisbella and Quatt in terror.
«Get him off the trolley,» Jisbella yelled.
Quail yanked Foyle off the trolley. Foyle came to his feet and sagged. Jisbella took his arm, and between them Sam and Jiz hauled him through a door into a ward filled with Baker's temporal freaks . . .subjects with accelerated time sense, darting about the ward with the lightning rapidity of humming birds and emitting piercing batlike squeals.
«Jaunte him out, Sam.»
«After the way he tried to cross and scalp us?»
«We can't run out on him, Sam. You ought to know that by now. Jaunte him out. Caister's place!»
Jisbella helped Quatt haul Foyle to his shoulder.