The Science Fiction Anthology. Филип Дик

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      “What are you going to do?” Ri asked, terrified.

      “Why, I’m going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait.”

      “No!”

      “Oh, come now. When the farn beast hears you scream—you can scream, by the way?”

      Ri swallowed.

      “We could find a way to make you.”

      There was perspiration trickling down Ri’s forehead, a single drop, creeping toward his nose.

      “You’ll be safe,” Extrone said, studying his face with amusement. “I’ll shoot the animal before it reaches you.”

      Ri gulped for air. “But ... if there should be more than one?”

      Extrone shrugged.

      “I—Look, sir. Listen to me.” Ri’s lips were bloodless and his hands were trembling. “It’s not me you want to do this to. It’s Mia, sir. He killed a farn beast before I did, sir. And last night—last night, he—”

      “He what?” Extrone demanded, leaning forward intently.

      Ri breathed with a gurgling sound. “He said he ought to kill you, sir. That’s what he said. I heard him, sir. He said he ought to kill you. He’s the one you ought to use for bait. Then if there was an accident, sir, it wouldn’t matter, because he said he ought to kill you. I wouldn’t....”

      Extrone said, “Which one is he?”

      “That one. Right over there.”

      “The one with his back to me?”

      “Yes, sir. That’s him. That’s him, sir.”

      Extrone aimed carefully and fired, full charge, then lowered the rifle and said, “Here comes Lin with the rope, I see.”

      Ri was greenish. “You ... you....”

      Extrone turned to Lin. “Tie one end around his waist.”

      “Wait,” Ri begged, fighting off the rope with his hands. “You don’t want to use me, sir. Not after I told you.... Please, sir. If anything should happen to me.... Please, sir. Don’t do it.”

      “Tie it,” Extrone ordered.

      “No, sir. Please. Oh, please don’t, sir.”

      “Tie it,” Extrone said inexorably.

      Lin bent with the rope; his face was colorless.

      They were at the watering hole—Extrone, Lin, two bearers, and Ri.

      Since the hole was drying, the left, partially exposed bank was steep toward the muddy water. Upon it was green, new grass, tender-tuffed, half mashed in places by heavy animal treads. It was there that they staked him out, tying the free end of the rope tightly around the base of a scaling tree.

      “You will scream,” Extrone instructed. With his rifle, he pointed across the water hole. “The farn beast will come from this direction, I imagine.”

      Ri was almost slobbering in fear.

      “Let me hear you scream,” Extrone said.

      Ri moaned weakly.

      “You’ll have to do better than that.” Extrone inclined his head toward a bearer, who used something Ri couldn’t see.

      Ri screamed.

      “See that you keep it up that way,” Extrone said. “That’s the way I want you to sound.” He turned toward Lin. “We can climb this tree, I think.”

      Slowly, aided by the bearers, the two men climbed the tree, bark peeling away from under their rough boots. Ri watched them hopelessly.

      Once at the crotch, Extrone settled down, holding the rifle at alert. Lin moved to the left, out on the main branch, rested in a smaller crotch.

      Looking down, Extrone said, “Scream!” Then, to Lin, “You feel the excitement? It’s always in the air like this at a hunt.”

      “I feel it,” Lin said.

      Extrone chuckled. “You were with me on Meizque?”

      “Yes.”

      “That was something, that time.” He ran his hand along the stock of the weapon.

      The sun headed west, veiling itself with trees; a large insect circled Extrone’s head. He slapped at it, angry. The forest was quiet, underlined by an occasional piping call, something like a whistle. Ri’s screams were shrill, echoing away, shiveringly. Lin sat quiet, hunched.

      Extrone’s eyes narrowed, and he began to pet the gun stock with quick, jerky movements. Lin licked his lips, keeping his eyes on Extrone’s face. The sun seemed stuck in the sky, and the heat squeezed against them, sucking at their breath like a vacuum. The insect went away. Still, endless, hopeless, monotonous, Ri screamed.

      A farn beast coughed, far in the matted forest.

      Extrone laughed nervously. “He must have heard.”

      “We’re lucky to rouse one so fast,” Lin said.

      Extrone dug his boot cleats into the tree, braced himself. “I like this. There’s more excitement in waiting like this than in anything I know.”

      Lin nodded.

      “The waiting, itself, is a lot. The suspense. It’s not only the killing that matters.”

      “It’s not only the killing,” Lin echoed.

      “You understand?” Extrone said. “How it is to wait, knowing in just a minute something is going to come out of the forest, and you’re going to kill it?”

      “I know,” Lin said.

      “But it’s not only the killing. It’s the waiting, too.”

      The farn beast coughed again; nearer.

      “It’s a different one,” Lin said.

      “How do you know?”

      “Hear the lower pitch, the more of a roar?”

      “Hey!” Extrone shouted. “You, down there. There are two coming. Now let’s hear you really scream!”

      Ri, below, whimpered childishly and began to retreat toward the tether tree, his eyes wide.

      “There’s a lot of satisfaction in fooling them, too,” Extrone said. “Making them come to your bait, where you can get at them.” He opened his right hand. “Choose your ground, set your trap. Bait it.” He snapped his hand into a fist, held the fist up before СКАЧАТЬ