[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
the writhing swarm of nebulous monstrosities that shared their existence. Like
some very minor-league superhero cursed with a single unassuming power, he
intervened on behalf of his unseeing fellow humans whenever he could. His
efforts were not always appreciated by those he saved from infestation,
who had no idea of the danger they were in at such moments or the
closeness of their respective calls.
The Interlopers knew, however. They screamed silently at him but were unable
to forestall his interference.
Time and again at work, on the streets, in a mall, outside a supermarket, and
once at a football game, he saved one or more heedless innocents from
being infected. Sometimes his efforts drew bemused. stares, sometimes
indifference, and once in a while, outright uncomprehending hostility.
Irrespective of the almost-victims' reactions, he perse-vered, knowing that
he was doing a good thing, realizing that in his own singular, small way he
was helping to keep a tiny portion of mankind healthier and saner than it
would have been without his intervention.
Strolling down the street either by himself or in the company of his wife or
friends, seeking shelter from the desert sun, he kept a wary but inconspicuous
eye on the raging horde of Interlopers that seemed to populate every third
rock, every fourth tree, every tenth bush or planter full of flowers. He
watched his fellow pedestrians as well, alert for indications that any might
be inhabited by rancorous otherworldly things that
122
roster
123
danced grotesquely in a light that only he could dis-cern.
They kept trying. They were persistent, and deter-mined---but so was he.
And the more aware of them he became through experience, the faster and
easier it was for him to detect and avoid them. His only fear was that the
effects of the potion might wear off, leaving him once more as blind to their
presence as the rest of an incog-nizant humankind. As days and then weeks
passed, how-ever, his perception remained as clear as ever. If
anything, it was sharpened by each new encounter.
They tried to deceive him with a bouquet of flowers delivered
anonymously to his office. Among the roses were small arching horrors
that would have pricked his soul instead of his skin. The vase they arrived in
was made from cut and polished marble, but it fooled him no more than did its
contents, for the vase was likewise in-habited, by an entirely different
strain of Interloper. As the creatures could not inhabit or pass through any
arti-ficial material, he donned plastic gloves before picking up the lethal
bouquet and carrying it carefully to the near-est dumpster. The virulent
inhabitants of vase and flow-ers flailed ineffectively at him as he
tossed them both into the big steel rubbish receptacle.
They might have got him on the morning he drove to work tired and
preoccupied, but he saw the truck com-ing in time and instead of
stopping, accelerated before it could turn into his path. It jumped the curb
in his wake and bounced across half a parking lot before smashing
Page 57
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
into the side of a furniture store. In his rearview mirror, Cody could
see the driver stagger out of the truck's cab and collapse to the pavement.
From his spine emerged a particularly large and vicious-looking perversion
that waved half a dozen eyestalks and claw-tipped tendrils in the direction
of the archaeologist's fleeing car.
For every accident the Interlopers caused, Cody pre-vented a dozen.
For every moment of misery they in-duced, he helped the ignorant and
unknowing to avoid many more. They seethed and fumed at him but
could not touch him. In spite of Kelli's chastising but tolerant tongue, he
succeeded in rendering their own home virtu-ally Interloper-proof.
Meanwhile, he spent every free mo-ment digging ever deeper into the
Chachapoyan codex, searching for a means that would enable one not only to.
see the malignancies, but to destroy them.
There had to be a way, he was convinced. Otherwise mankind would have long
since been overrun by the hor-rors that dwelled within, or gone
collectively mad. It was not enough to be able to avoid the Interlopers.
There had to exist a means for confronting them directly, and for eradicating
them.
By the time the midafternoon heat had fallen from boil-ing to merely
simmering, when the temperature in the
Valley of the Sun could be read in less than triple-digits Fahrenheit and a
whiff of approaching fall manifested it-self in the smell of decaying leaves,
he was feeling pretty good about things. His research was progressing well. He
was convinced that a mechanism for not merely avoid-ing the Interlopers but
for fighting back was at hand. De-spite its forbidding population of
psychic parasites, the world was looking good to Cody as he turned
down the street on which he lived.
He eyed the neat, prosperous homes with their desert landscaping
approvingly. Thanks to his relentless, covert efforts, his immediate
neighbors lived nearly free of In-terlopers. As a result, his was a street
populated by smil-ing people and happy families. Unwitting and unawares, they [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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the writhing swarm of nebulous monstrosities that shared their existence. Like
some very minor-league superhero cursed with a single unassuming power, he
intervened on behalf of his unseeing fellow humans whenever he could. His
efforts were not always appreciated by those he saved from infestation,
who had no idea of the danger they were in at such moments or the
closeness of their respective calls.
The Interlopers knew, however. They screamed silently at him but were unable
to forestall his interference.
Time and again at work, on the streets, in a mall, outside a supermarket, and
once at a football game, he saved one or more heedless innocents from
being infected. Sometimes his efforts drew bemused. stares, sometimes
indifference, and once in a while, outright uncomprehending hostility.
Irrespective of the almost-victims' reactions, he perse-vered, knowing that
he was doing a good thing, realizing that in his own singular, small way he
was helping to keep a tiny portion of mankind healthier and saner than it
would have been without his intervention.
Strolling down the street either by himself or in the company of his wife or
friends, seeking shelter from the desert sun, he kept a wary but inconspicuous
eye on the raging horde of Interlopers that seemed to populate every third
rock, every fourth tree, every tenth bush or planter full of flowers. He
watched his fellow pedestrians as well, alert for indications that any might
be inhabited by rancorous otherworldly things that
122
roster
123
danced grotesquely in a light that only he could dis-cern.
They kept trying. They were persistent, and deter-mined---but so was he.
And the more aware of them he became through experience, the faster and
easier it was for him to detect and avoid them. His only fear was that the
effects of the potion might wear off, leaving him once more as blind to their
presence as the rest of an incog-nizant humankind. As days and then weeks
passed, how-ever, his perception remained as clear as ever. If
anything, it was sharpened by each new encounter.
They tried to deceive him with a bouquet of flowers delivered
anonymously to his office. Among the roses were small arching horrors
that would have pricked his soul instead of his skin. The vase they arrived in
was made from cut and polished marble, but it fooled him no more than did its
contents, for the vase was likewise in-habited, by an entirely different
strain of Interloper. As the creatures could not inhabit or pass through any
arti-ficial material, he donned plastic gloves before picking up the lethal
bouquet and carrying it carefully to the near-est dumpster. The virulent
inhabitants of vase and flow-ers flailed ineffectively at him as he
tossed them both into the big steel rubbish receptacle.
They might have got him on the morning he drove to work tired and
preoccupied, but he saw the truck com-ing in time and instead of
stopping, accelerated before it could turn into his path. It jumped the curb
in his wake and bounced across half a parking lot before smashing
Page 57
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
into the side of a furniture store. In his rearview mirror, Cody could
see the driver stagger out of the truck's cab and collapse to the pavement.
From his spine emerged a particularly large and vicious-looking perversion
that waved half a dozen eyestalks and claw-tipped tendrils in the direction
of the archaeologist's fleeing car.
For every accident the Interlopers caused, Cody pre-vented a dozen.
For every moment of misery they in-duced, he helped the ignorant and
unknowing to avoid many more. They seethed and fumed at him but
could not touch him. In spite of Kelli's chastising but tolerant tongue, he
succeeded in rendering their own home virtu-ally Interloper-proof.
Meanwhile, he spent every free mo-ment digging ever deeper into the
Chachapoyan codex, searching for a means that would enable one not only to.
see the malignancies, but to destroy them.
There had to be a way, he was convinced. Otherwise mankind would have long
since been overrun by the hor-rors that dwelled within, or gone
collectively mad. It was not enough to be able to avoid the Interlopers.
There had to exist a means for confronting them directly, and for eradicating
them.
By the time the midafternoon heat had fallen from boil-ing to merely
simmering, when the temperature in the
Valley of the Sun could be read in less than triple-digits Fahrenheit and a
whiff of approaching fall manifested it-self in the smell of decaying leaves,
he was feeling pretty good about things. His research was progressing well. He
was convinced that a mechanism for not merely avoid-ing the Interlopers but
for fighting back was at hand. De-spite its forbidding population of
psychic parasites, the world was looking good to Cody as he turned
down the street on which he lived.
He eyed the neat, prosperous homes with their desert landscaping
approvingly. Thanks to his relentless, covert efforts, his immediate
neighbors lived nearly free of In-terlopers. As a result, his was a street
populated by smil-ing people and happy families. Unwitting and unawares, they [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]