[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
impact, the cage rocked on its trailer. The snake's dripping fangs looked like
a pair of back-curving, yellow scimitars jutting from its upper jawbone.
"The good thing about Worm," the carny master said as he jumped on the front
edge of the trailer and tiptoed along it to the middle of the cage, "is that
he only eats twice a month." He had to shout the last part over the buzzing
roar made by the snake's huge rattles.
ABC Amber Text Converter Trial version,
http://www.thebeatlesforever.com/processtext/abctxt.html
Leeloo sucked in and held her breath as Crecca took hold of the pin that held
shut the cage door.
Everyone in the audience saw him grip the pin, and everyone knew what was
going to happen next.
They couldn't believe their eyes, but they knew it was going to happen.
"The bad thing," the carny master said, "is that it's a week past his
dinnertime."
With that, he jerked the pin from the hasp and leaped out of the way as the
barred door swung open. Worm was a lot faster than he looked. He was out of
the cage and on the ground before anyone could even scream.
Then everybody was screaming.
Page 43
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Bullard ville's mothers grabbed for their children; Bullard ville's menfolk
went for their blasters.
The folks closest to the rear started to run for the exit.
Dean was up in the blink of an eye, thrusting his body between the huge snake
and Leeloo. With his feet shoulder width apart, he held the cocked, nine mill
Browning in both hands.
"Don't shoot!" the carny master yelled over the din.
"Everyone stay right where you are! Stay where you are and no one will be
hurt. Everything is under control. The snake charmers are in position."
With that, the recorded music changed to something slow and sinuous, flutes
and drums, drums and flutes.
Even the spectators halfway out the door stopped and turned to look.
Leeloo grabbed hold of Dean's arm; she couldn't help it.
The four beautiful norm women had surrounded the giant
ABC Amber Text Converter Trial version,
http://www.thebeatlesforever.com/processtext/abctxt.html
rattler, which now sat coiled in the middle of the center ring, its yard of
rattles raised, buzzing mightily, its flat boulder of a head shifting as it
tasted the air with a black forked tongue as long as a bullwhip. The snake
charmers never stopped moving, never gave Worm a solid target to lock on to.
Even so, perhaps out of anger and frustration, the snake struck anyway. It
launched itself forward, mouth agape, hollow fangs oozing thick streamers of
poison.
The charmer that Worm had targeted did a hip feint and reverse, and with long
legs jumped well out of the way.
The crowd cheered the clean miss.
Worm regrouped in the center ring, rattles buzzing even louder. The four women
then took turns rushing at the flat, scaly head, drawing gaping strikes, and
as they dodged and ducked the fang points, gasps rose from the audience. If
there was so much as a stumble, if there was the slightest hesitation, one of
the lovely women was going to die before their eyes.
Every time the snake struck, it extended itself to its full length on the
ground. As it lay outstretched, after a dozen or more futile launches, a pair
of the charmers ran right up the middle of its back. The one in front held a
contraption made of chain link and padlocks. Before the snake could draw its
body back beneath itself, the women had their long legs astraddle its neck,
and with their combined body weight drove its chin into the dirt.
The crowd jumped to its feet, cheering.
The charmer in front slipped the chain muzzle over Worm's broad snout, the
muscles in her back jumping as she dug her heels in the ground and hauled back
hard to seat the device behind his eyes. She locked the muzzle in place and
dismounted with a flourish, pirouetting away hand in hand with her sister
charmer.
They got out of range just in time.
ABC Amber Text Converter Trial version,
http://www.thebeatlesforever.com/processtext/abctxt.html
Unable to open its mouth and free its lethal weapons, Worm went crazy, rolling
and thrashing like a flesh-and-blood cyclone.
It took many minutes for this display of animal power and fury to wind down.
When the great snake had finally exhausted itself, with help of four burly
roustabouts, the charmers dragged the defeated Worm back to its cage by the
tail.
As the cage rolled away, the carny master vaulted over the center ring's
bumper and cried, "Bring on the swampies!"
Leeloo had never seen a real swampie before, only heard tell.
How dirty they were. How bad they smelled. How bastard mean they were. She was
Page 44
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
surprised at their small stature. They were heavily built for their size,
though, with stout, stumpy legs, wide, blocky hips, stocky torsos, thick arms
and hands, and big, bony heads. The weight of the bone of their foreheads and
brows gave them all, male and female, a perpetually sour, scowling appearance.
Even as they tumbled and rolled around the ring to sprightly, upbeat music of
clarinets and cymbals, there was nothing playful or lighthearted in their
performance. Somersaults, cartwheels, handstands, headstands, mutie pyramids,
all were delivered with the same dour distaste.
Crecca let the mirthless gamboling continue for a few more minutes, then
stepped back into the center of the ring and waved his arms. The swampies
stopped tumbling and circled around him. "Time for some juggling!" he
announced. "Not red-hot coals. Not flaming torches. Not razor-sharp swords.
But these& "
He held aloft in either hand a clutch of small, round, flat-black-painted
metal objects.
"Frag grens," Leeloo said. "Those are frag grens."
"Probably not real, though," Dean told her.
As if the carny master had heard the words, he pulled the pin on one of the
grens and lobbed the armed explosive toward the tent's only exit. The crowd
ducked& as if ducking would do any
ABC Amber Text Converter Trial version,
http://www.thebeatlesforever.com/processtext/abctxt.html
good. A roustabout at the exit caught the grenade and pitched it outside.
"Three, two, one& " Crecca counted aloud.
The ground under Leeloo rocked from the explosion.
"Now, let's have some real fun," the carny master said. With that, he pulled
the pin on a grenade, then tossed the gren one way and the pin the other.
Swampies on the opposite sides of the circle caught the thrown objects. The
one who'd grabbed the gren quickly flipped it to the one who had the pin. That
swampie put the pin back in, disarming the explosive.
"Get the picture?" Crecca asked his audience. Then he started yanking pins and
throwing the armed grens and pins around the circle. In a moment or two, all
five were flying back and forth.
It made Leeloo dizzy to watch.
And she was plenty scared, too.
She was in the front row.
Everything was okay for a while, but when the juggling act fell apart, it did
so on a grand scale. Somehow, all the pulled pins ended up on one side of the
ring, and all the armed grens on the other, at the feet of a particularly
grouchy looking swampie.
He threw back his matted head and bawled, "Mama!"
All the grens all blew with a loud whack! Instead of steel splinters,
multicolored confetti flew through the air, drifting down onto the audience.
When the crowd settled down, the Magnificent Crecca wound in the long chain
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]