"Axler, James - Deathlands 050 - Pandora's Reboubt - Nick Pollotta" - читать интересную книгу автора (Axler James)

"But if they got in," Dean said, "the same code would let them out, right?"
"Yes," replied his father. "Their leader must have got lucky and figured out the access code. When he got chilled fighting over who would own the Leviathan, that was it for everybody."
"They did it to themselves. The damn fools."
"Damn dead fools." Ryan started to unbuckle his safety harness, but Krysty stopped him.
"I'm faster," she said and was out the side door before he could respond.
"Fireblast!" he cried, "Everybody to the ports. Give her cover!"
Ryan hit the controls, turning on every light they had, as blaster barrels extended from every port. Sprinting to the wall, the redhead rapidly punched in the access code, then turned and headed for the tank.
A flurry of blasterfire from the side .50-caliber machine guns cut loose and the woman crouched low, both hands gripping her S&W revolver. She had no idea what they were shooting at. The blasters were pointed low, the rounds glancing off the concrete wall. Then from under Leviathan came two hellhounds, the nightmare beasts springing straight for her. The crossing streams of heavy slugs caught one and brutally cut it in two. The undamaged animal retreated into the darkness, while the wounded dog writhed grotesquely, still trying to reach Krysty, the tentacles and paws dragging along the bloody hunks of dying flesh. Standing, she kicked the animal out of the way with her silver-tipped boot and scrambled into the safety of the tank.
"Thanks," she said, locking the door tight
J.B. tipped his hat. Partially hidden by the large pile of supplies in the middle of the vehicle, Mildred flashed a smile. "No prob," she said, patting the boxy breech of the Remington. "Feeds a bit slow, but it's much better than my Czech revolver."
"Here we go," Ryan announced, shifting gears. The massive steel portal had risen into the ceiling with the sound of oiled gears and smooth hydraulics. Brilliant sunshine poured into the tunnel. Ryan accelerated out of the darkness, and the tank was engulfed in a blinding glare. Nothing could be seen through the windows. Then, incredibly, the glass tinted, dimming the light to bearable levels. "Dean, jump out and punch in the code to close the door," Ryan ordered. As the youth did his father's bidding, the rest of the companions covered Dean until he was safely back on board. When the door had finally descended, the entrance to the base was a solid sheet of sand-colored alloy, the squat dome resembling an outcropping of granite. Leviathan was only a short distance away, and the friends found it difficult to pinpoint the entrance.
"Good disguise," Jak stated, sounding impressed.
Shifting sands and bare rock stretched to the horizon, without a single break of withered grass, dead trees or the ancient remains of a sidewalk. As far as they could tell, this was virgin desert, as pristine as before humanity walked erect.
Krysty gave a shiver. "Dead, it's so dead," she said, hugging her shaggy bearskin coat tight as if she were freezing. "There's no life out here I can feel."
"Good," Jak said, idly stropping one of his countless throwing knives on a pocket whetstone.
"Reminds me of the lunar landscape," Mildred commented.
Dean stared at her and began to ask a question, then stopped. He would take her word on the matter. Mildred knew things that were almost impossible for him to believe, but were true nonetheless.
"It Does resemble the moon, dear lady, except for those," Doc noted, pointing. In the far distance, gray mountains rose high into the sky, their sides twinkling as if set with a thousand diamonds.
"Now that's interesting," the physician murmured, raising a pair of binocs to her face and pressing them against the tinted composite glass. "Note those rolling hills before the odd mountains? That's atomic landscaping. When the nuke hit, the soil rippled liked a pond when you drop in a stone, then solidified into place."
Opening the window a crack. Ryan unclipped the rad counter from his collar and held it outside. "Clean!"
"Same here," J.B. said from the starboard machine gun, inspecting his own rad counter. "Must have been a short half-life bomb that leveled this area. Background is tolerable."
"So where are we?" Mildred asked. Tucking away his rad counter, LB. reached into his shirt and produced a minisextant. "Give me five minutes and I can tell you."
"Anywhere not Chicago is fine by me," Doc said succinctly, his face full of memories.
Returning the rad counter to his collar, Ryan closed the window. "Area seems secure, but don't dawdle, J.B. Everybody else watch for-"
"Incoming," Dean cried loudly from the rear doors.
Doc joined him at the louvered slots. "By the Three Kennedys, those Dantean canines are yet after us!" Then his expression changed to befuddlement "Shades of the great Houdini! Th-they're gone!"
"Ran away?" Ryan asked pointedly. He was looking in both the sideview mirrors, but couldn't see the mutie dogs.
"No, sir," Dean reported, swallowing hard. "They're just.. .gone. Sort of, faded away."
"They turned light tan in color," Doc explained, making sure the bolt on the rear doors was secure. "Exactly the same hue as the sand."
"Like chameleons?" Mildred asked, studying the desert outside. Only the baked sand was visible, but every little puff of wind-driven dust now held hostile intent. "That's why they were black inside the garage, and the dead went neutral in tone. Better cover. Fascinating."
"Deadly," Ryan corrected, swiveling in his chair. "Krysty, anything on that infrared gizmo?"
"Checking," the redhead replied, fumbling with the unfamiliar controls. It took her a few moments to figure out what was where. "No, it's too hot out here. There's a switch here for something called ultraviolet"
Krysty flipped a switch and a vid screen came to life, showing a stark black-and-white view of the landscape. She rotated a tracking ball, and the picture spun to their wake. "Found them! Smack on top of that big sand dune."
"Got them." The Armorer smiled and he hit a switch.
There was a metallic clang, then a roaring noise that built in volume, then quickly faded away. From the side windows and ports, the friends could see a silvery dart riding a column of reddish fire streak away to violently impact on the hilltop. The entire dune vanished in a tremendous explosion, a geyser of sand blowing into the sky for dozens of yards.
"Dead," Jak said, his scarred face twisting into a smile.
Easing on the clutch, Ryan brought the rumbling machine to a gentle halt. "Well?" he asked.
"No," Krysty replied, fine-tuning the controls. "Two figures are running off into the sunset"
"Where? Directly into the sunset, or on a vector?" J.B. snapped.
"Too late," she announced, as the screen went blank. "They're gone."
"Well, we got most of them," Dean said.
"But not all."
J.B. yanked off his hat and smacked it into his hand. "Dark night! Bastard things are harder to kill than a three-headed stickie!"
"And uglier," Jak drawled, testing a knife edge on a thumb. "Least they gone."
"Indeed, sir," Doc agreed vehemently. "And good riddance I say."
Rolling down a window, Ryan let the dry desert wind blow over his face. "No," he said, "it's not good. Until we have two corpses, nobody goes outside this vehicle alone. At least, not until we're far away from here."
"Can't know we're away till we get the coordinates of here," J.B. said, undogging the lock to the side door. "Okay, everybody cover me. I'm gonna find out where we are."
"Scope is clean," Krysty said, fiddling with the contrast. "But you best hurry. I can't scan on every side at once."
"No prob."
Their handblasters primed, Jak and Dean took positions on either side of the open door, grimly watching the landscape for any suspicious movements. Slinging his submachine gun, J.B. reached inside his shirt and pulled out his minisextant "Just a second," he announced working the device. Focusing the mirrors on the sun, then the horizon, he checked his arcs and counted off the seconds.