"Asimov, Isaac - Robot City 05 - Refuge - Robert Chilson 1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

They all began to jabber hostilely as he and Ariel stepped to one side, were struck by the wind, and fell behind on their slower strip.

"Stop! We ain't done talkin' atya!" cried Jake, and the Earthers swarmed off the platform level and started down. Ariel gasped and Derec realized that they would soon be below them, on the slower strips, between them and the locals.

"Back up!" Derec said tensely, and in a moment they were squeezing between platforms. Their persecutors caught the change of direction instantly and were in full cry. He hurried Ariel rapidly down the strips on the inside, their enemies gaining rapidly with a lifetime's expertise. At the motionless median between expressways, he looked around wildly. There was no possibility of their climbing the reverse ways and staying ahead.

"In here!" said Ariel, and they dived into a kiosk and ran down the strip, not waiting for it to carry them. They ran under the ways, hearing voices crying "Spacer! Spacer!" behind them.

At the other end, they had a choice of a moving strip that would take them up beside the expressway, or a maze of corridors at this level: poorly lit, poorly cleaned, sparsely populated, and thick with nameless organic odors.

There was quite a mob behind them, by the sound. Pant-ing, they ran into the first corridor, took the first branching, then the next. They paused, listening. A derelict lay on a low platform beside a wide freight door, scruffy and unshaven.

ST. LOUIS YEAST, PLANT 17, said the door.

Derec had a sudden flashing memory of having viewed a novel set on Earth in the medieval days, when a derelict like this turned out to be a crusty, cheerful, picaresque, heart-of-gold character who saved the day for the hero and became his closest buddy.

This one had more the attitude of a rat. Rousing himself with surprising energy, he listened, rubbed his graying whiskers, and., growling something about "stirring up the damn yeast farmers," he dived into a small door beside the freight door, and slammed it. They heard it lock.

Voices and footfalls approached. They looked around. There were no tiny crannies to escape into, nothing but corridors Wide enough for trucks to be driven through. Eventually they'd be run down wherever they went, however fast they ran. And their enemies no longer merely wanted to talk to Derec and Ariel. They had something much more direct in mind.


5. ESCAPE?

Ariel heard them coming. Heart pounding, she looked around again. No place to run to, no place to hidt /x:'. a blank moment Derec took the Key to Perihelion out o! his pocket (Ariel gasped), put it in her palm, squeezed the four corners in succession, and closed both their hands around it fiercely. Ariel pushed the button as they held their breath. The gray nothingness of Perihelion was around them, forever and ever to the limits of vision.

Derec let his breath out. "Frost! I thought they had us!"

"So did I!"

They were in no hurry to return to Earth, yet there was surely no more boring place in hyperspace or normal space, whichever it was, than Perihelion. They looked at each other, and Ariel shrugged, as Derec wiped his brow.

"Oh, no!"

They had moved at the same time, and, releasing each other, had drifted apart. With great presence of mind, Derec lunged for her. Ariel was frozen in shock; had she reached for him at the same time, she could have caught his hand. Too late.

They looked at each other tragically. Inexorably, they drifted further apart.

Ariel felt she had to make up for it. 'TI1 throw you the Key!" she cried. "You go back to Earth--forget about me!" "Nonsense! If you do, I'll throw it back--"

At that moment his face went blank and he contorted himself into a knot; reaching for his soft shoes, he tore them off. Writhing with a practiced free-fall motion, he turned his back to her and hurled the first shoe away. With the reaction to that throw, he ceased to recede. Now he was rotating. He allowed himself to rotate twice, studying her, then writhed again, and threw the other shoe.

After a prolonged wait they seized each other, Ariel gasping in relief. To her surprise, she felt him shaking. "Derec, you were marvelous! I thought we were lost!" Derec grinned shakily. "What you said about throwing the Key gave me the idea.".

"Frost, I'm glad something did." Ariel took the Key and pressed the corners again, and, with both gripping it, pushed the button.

R. David was against the wall in his usual place. "Frost," Ariel said, feeling ready to collapse. She sat down, knees shaking, and so did Derec.

"What did they mean, 'your little social study of conditions on Earth'--the yeast farmers?" Derec asked.