WORM’S EYE VIEW
Jody Lynn Nye
Detective Sergeant Dena Malone looked with horror at the meter-long, tubular, rose pink creature swimming in the medical examiner’s sink. Every so often, it turned large, dark eyes like those of an octopus in their direction. She could see herself reflected in them: slim, thirty, brown hair razor-cut around an oval face. About thirty centimeters from the creature’s eyes was a squarish bulge and a faint white scar showing where the object beneath the skin had been implanted. The creature seemed, otherwise, featureless, but that didn’t make it any less disgusting. She stepped back and glared at the three men.
“With respect, captain,” she said, “that’s not in my job description.”
“Witness protection?” Captain Potopos said, falsely hearty. He was a big man with a ruddy complexion. “Sure it is.”
The slim, gray-haired man almost eclipsed by the senior policeman’s burly body smiled at Dena in a way that reminded her of defense attorneys and confidence tricksters, neither of whom she trusted. The austere woman in the suit at the gray-haired man’s side looked like his conscience.
“Think of it as good public relations for the department—not that you may reveal K’t’ank’s location until after the culprits are apprehended—but it will give a real boost to Human-Salosian relations,” Mr. Tiedler said. “You’ll hardly know that K’t’ank is there.”
Of course I’ll know! Dena wanted to shriek, but she kept her voice level. “Mr. Tiedler, you want me to investigate the murder of Professor Omar Derbayi with that thing swimming around in my peritoneum?”
Лучший вариант был "Насмешливые Литературные Объекты", но он мне не понравился ...