The dream of perpetual motion by Dexter Palmer
Author:Dexter Palmer [Dexter Palmer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Roman, SF
ISBN: 9780312558154
Published: 2010-03-02T22:27:09+00:00
TWENTY
Harold starts awake to the irregular sound of metal violently striking metal. Bang. Bang . . . dong. Huh? Whazzat. Someoneâs in here.
The room heâs in is empty, except for himself and a single typesetting mechanical man that is quietly going about its business, seemingly oblivious of the nearby clamor. From where he is sitting, Harold can see through the doorway into the next room, where the presses are. Two men are in there, moving back and forth in front of the door, in and out of shadow. Something about their silhouettes is strange: their heads are oddly geometrical, the tops of them shaped like perfect cones, tapering to a point with some kind of tube sticking on top. One wields a double-bladed axe; the other has what looks like a length of lead pipe. âI swear to Christ if thereâs one thing I hate,â he screams, âitâs movable type! Seems to me that type is meant to stay put! You know?! So that you can get a good clear look at it. So you can take the time that you needââ(ssswishCLANK!)ââto figure out what itâs saying. But some crazy sons of bitches who think that everything that can be invented ought to be came up with this bullshit movable type: you try to read a book made out of it, and it says one thing, then you put it down because you have to answer the door or go pee or something, and when you come back to it the typeâs gone and moved all around and it says something else entirely! But I swear that tonight, tonight my friend, I am going to teach that shit to stayââssswishDONK!ââput!â
Common sense says to run. The duties of a security guard are not in Haroldâs job description, and the idea of getting beaten to a pulp is not appealing, by axe or by pipe. But the roomâs one exit is blocked, and when the two thugs finish tearing apart the merchandise in the room theyâre in, theyâll come in here, and thatâll be it.
So he can hide. But where? Thereâs no room for him in any of the closets; crawling under a table is a dumb idea. Then he has it: a clever man in this situation would hide in plain sight! The lighting in the room is dim, and most of the walls are in shadow. Against one of the walls are two mechanical men, standing at attention in the dark. Harold quietly tiptoes around and cuts off the few lights in the room, feeling a little brave now, feeling sly, even (and the typesetting tin man goes on working in the dark, the only illumination in the room now coming from his scanning eye, moving across the page from left to right and right to left).
Harold runs over to the wall and stands still next to the rigid tin men, wedged between one of them and a locker. He canât see three feet in front of him. This is going to work, he thinks.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Sita - Warrior of Mithila (Book 2 of the Ram Chandra Series) by Amish(53749)
The Crystal Crypt by Dick Philip K(36389)
Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut(14721)
Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han(14433)
Ready Player One by Cline Ernest(13926)
The Last by Hanna Jameson(9774)
Year One by Nora Roberts(9274)
Persepolis Rising by James S. A. Corey(8920)
The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro(8349)
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro(8262)
Red Rising by Pierce Brown(8217)
Dark Space: The Second Trilogy (Books 4-6) (Dark Space Trilogies Book 2) by Jasper T. Scott(7885)
The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood(7414)
The Circle by Dave Eggers(6814)
Frank Herbert's Dune Saga Collection: Books 1 - 6 by Frank Herbert(6670)
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood(6452)
Legacy by Ellery Kane(6371)
Pandemic (The Extinction Files Book 1) by A.G. Riddle(6156)
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty(5791)
