"Adams, Douglas -- So Long and Thanks for All The Fish (4)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adams Douglas)

for the shelter of some trees as, behind him, the spacecraft had
already begun its ascent.

Lightning flitted through the sky and made the figure pause for a
moment, and then hurry onwards, revising his path to give the
trees a wide berth. He moved swiftly across the ground, slipping
here and there, hunching himself against the rain which was
falling now with ever-increasing concentration, as if being
pulled from the sky.

His feet sloshed through the mud. Thunder grumbled over the
hills. He pointlessly wiped the rain off his face and stumbled
on.

More lights.

Not lightning this time, but more diffused and dimmer lights
which played slowly over the horizon and faded.

The figure paused again on seeing them, and then redoubled his
steps, making directly towards the point on the horizon at which
they had appeared.

And now the ground was becoming steeper, sloping upwards, and
after another two or three hundred yards it led at last to an
obstacle. The figure paused to examine the barrier and then
dropped the bag he was carrying over it before climbing over
himself.

Hardly had the figure touched the ground on the other side when
there came sweeping out of the rain towards him a machine, lights
streaming through the wall of water. The figure pressed back as
the machine streaked towards him. it was a low bulbous shape,
like a small whale surfing - sleek, grey and rounded and moving
at terrifying speed.

The figure instinctively threw up his hands to protect himself,
but was hit only by a sluice of water as the machine swept past
and off into the night.

It was illuminated briefly by another flicker of lightning
crossing the sky, which allowed the soaked figure by the roadside
a split-second to read a small sign at the back of the machine
before it disappeared.

To the figure's apparent incredulous astonishment the sign read,
"My other car is also a Porsche."

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Chapter 2