[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Krusho, had been an Oni adept when he was alive; and as El Krusho tried to
claw back his head and break his neck, he twisted powerfully around, and threw
El Krusho against the metal staircase.
El Krusho lurched to his feet again and tore into the Tengu with the madness
of a wild animal. He dug his fingers into the Tengu's wounds, and ripped yards
of red muscle away from the Tengu's bones. He butted the Tengu repeatedly with
his skull, and at last the two of them became locked together in the clinch
which, in Oni, is known as the Fatal Embrace. It is one of the few slow moves
in Oni, a twisting together of arms and backs which can be fatal to either
antagonist, or both.
J
378
Tengu
There were three or four minutes of grunting strain, as the Tengu pulled
against El Krusho and El Krusho pulled back. Then, with enormous effort, El
Krusho staggered to his feet, carrying the Tengu on his back like the carcass
of a slaughtered bull, and walked with him, step by agonized step, out of the
reactor hall and out toward the huge pool where spent nuclear fuel was kept
submerged, prior to reprocessing.
The pool hall was as cold and echoing as a swimming pool. Beneath the
deep-turquoise water, lit by underwater floodlights, stood rack after rack of
tubular steel where the fuel rods were stored.
At the very edge of the pool, El Krusho and the Tengu wrestled and chopped and
grappled with each other. The Tengu at last seized Maurice by the neck and
flailed him from one side to the other, howling with a weird echoing howl that
sounded as if it had come from hell itself.
There was a moment of physical ballet, a moment of strain and tension and
ultimate pain. Then both of them, Tengu and El Krusho, toppled and fell into
the radioactive pool.
Mack and Jerry stood by the edge, watching the two figures claw at each other
beneath the surface, their bodies distorted by the water, a huge burst of
bubbles rushed to the surface from El Krusho's lungs, but still neither of
them came up.
It was then that Skrolnik came through and urgently touched Jerry's arm.
"Listen," he said, "the reactor's gone out of control. It's like a runaway
Page 187
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
train. The director doesn't think he's going to be able to control it."
Jerry looked down into the depths of the pool, where El Krusho and the Tengu
were struggling their last among the racks of plutonium and U-235. He could
already feel the deep hum of the fusion reactor reverberating throughout the
building. He glanced at Mack, and then at Skrolnik again.
"Hiroshima," he said. "That's what this is all about.
Tengu
379
Goddamned Hiroshima." He felt a crunching of broken porcelain in his pocket,
and realized it was the cricket cage.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
At 8:27 P-M., the sun rose over San Juan Capistrano, just south of Los
Angeles. The explosion of the reactor at Three Arch Bay was exactly similar to
the detonation of a hydrogen bomb, since the release of neutrons caused by the
fusion of the reactor led to fission of the plutonium and uranium waste in the
used-fuel pool, and the discharge of violent radioactivity.
The evening turned to daylight as an immense white fireball ascended
thunderously into the sky, and then hung there, rumbling, glowing with
malevolent heat and power. A young starlet who was prancing out of her car on
Santa Monica Boulevard was immortalized in the glass of the Palm Restaurant
window. A famous producer who was drinking his tenth collins of the day looked
southward from his Bel Air balcony when he first saw something flashing, and
was evaporated where he stood.
Within seconds, a roasting wind blew through Garden Grove and Anaheim and
Lakewood, turning Disneyland to fiery wreckage, melting the dummies in the
Hollywood Wax Museum, melting human beings, too. Dreams and reality both died
that day. Reels of movies waiting to be edited at Twentieth-Century Fox and
Universal Studios flared up in seconds.
David Sennett was watching television when he heard the first crack and
rumble. Then a terrifying flash filled the
380
Tengu
room, and the drapes billowed out as if a hurricane had caught them.
"Oh, Dad,'' he thought. He knew what had happened. "Oh, Dad, Oh, God."
Page 188 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
Krusho, had been an Oni adept when he was alive; and as El Krusho tried to
claw back his head and break his neck, he twisted powerfully around, and threw
El Krusho against the metal staircase.
El Krusho lurched to his feet again and tore into the Tengu with the madness
of a wild animal. He dug his fingers into the Tengu's wounds, and ripped yards
of red muscle away from the Tengu's bones. He butted the Tengu repeatedly with
his skull, and at last the two of them became locked together in the clinch
which, in Oni, is known as the Fatal Embrace. It is one of the few slow moves
in Oni, a twisting together of arms and backs which can be fatal to either
antagonist, or both.
J
378
Tengu
There were three or four minutes of grunting strain, as the Tengu pulled
against El Krusho and El Krusho pulled back. Then, with enormous effort, El
Krusho staggered to his feet, carrying the Tengu on his back like the carcass
of a slaughtered bull, and walked with him, step by agonized step, out of the
reactor hall and out toward the huge pool where spent nuclear fuel was kept
submerged, prior to reprocessing.
The pool hall was as cold and echoing as a swimming pool. Beneath the
deep-turquoise water, lit by underwater floodlights, stood rack after rack of
tubular steel where the fuel rods were stored.
At the very edge of the pool, El Krusho and the Tengu wrestled and chopped and
grappled with each other. The Tengu at last seized Maurice by the neck and
flailed him from one side to the other, howling with a weird echoing howl that
sounded as if it had come from hell itself.
There was a moment of physical ballet, a moment of strain and tension and
ultimate pain. Then both of them, Tengu and El Krusho, toppled and fell into
the radioactive pool.
Mack and Jerry stood by the edge, watching the two figures claw at each other
beneath the surface, their bodies distorted by the water, a huge burst of
bubbles rushed to the surface from El Krusho's lungs, but still neither of
them came up.
It was then that Skrolnik came through and urgently touched Jerry's arm.
"Listen," he said, "the reactor's gone out of control. It's like a runaway
Page 187
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
train. The director doesn't think he's going to be able to control it."
Jerry looked down into the depths of the pool, where El Krusho and the Tengu
were struggling their last among the racks of plutonium and U-235. He could
already feel the deep hum of the fusion reactor reverberating throughout the
building. He glanced at Mack, and then at Skrolnik again.
"Hiroshima," he said. "That's what this is all about.
Tengu
379
Goddamned Hiroshima." He felt a crunching of broken porcelain in his pocket,
and realized it was the cricket cage.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
At 8:27 P-M., the sun rose over San Juan Capistrano, just south of Los
Angeles. The explosion of the reactor at Three Arch Bay was exactly similar to
the detonation of a hydrogen bomb, since the release of neutrons caused by the
fusion of the reactor led to fission of the plutonium and uranium waste in the
used-fuel pool, and the discharge of violent radioactivity.
The evening turned to daylight as an immense white fireball ascended
thunderously into the sky, and then hung there, rumbling, glowing with
malevolent heat and power. A young starlet who was prancing out of her car on
Santa Monica Boulevard was immortalized in the glass of the Palm Restaurant
window. A famous producer who was drinking his tenth collins of the day looked
southward from his Bel Air balcony when he first saw something flashing, and
was evaporated where he stood.
Within seconds, a roasting wind blew through Garden Grove and Anaheim and
Lakewood, turning Disneyland to fiery wreckage, melting the dummies in the
Hollywood Wax Museum, melting human beings, too. Dreams and reality both died
that day. Reels of movies waiting to be edited at Twentieth-Century Fox and
Universal Studios flared up in seconds.
David Sennett was watching television when he heard the first crack and
rumble. Then a terrifying flash filled the
380
Tengu
room, and the drapes billowed out as if a hurricane had caught them.
"Oh, Dad,'' he thought. He knew what had happened. "Oh, Dad, Oh, God."
Page 188 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]