"3 Star Brothers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bova Ben)

Dr. Lucacs looked uncomfortable.

His voice rising as he reached for the cognac bottle again, Baker went on, "Sure, they made me chairman of their bloody IIA And all the big multinational corporations send their flunkies to sit 'round our table. But who runs the IIA? Actually runs it? fo Camerata, that's who! Vanguard Industries, that's who And who runs Vanguard? Stoner, the bloody alien freak. Her husband."

The scientist leaned back in her chair and tried to sort out all this new information.

"You'll never get to Stoner," Baker predicted. "He's better protected than the bloody Pope."

"I've interviewed almost everyone who knew him when he

was first revived," she mused, as if reviewing the options left for her next move "Most of the medical team has died over the past fifteen years "

"You bet they have"

Dr Lucacs raised her brows Baker smiled a crooked, know ing smile and poured more cognac for himself

"Ms Camerata won't see me," she said

" 'Course not "

"There is only one other person that I know of A Professor Markov, of the Soviet Academy of Sciences And he's very elderly "

"Better get to him right away, then," said Baker "Before Stoner finds out you're after him "

Her beautiful eyes widened "You don't think ?"

Baker's smile turned cruel "All those medical blokes kicked off, didn't they? You don't think those were all natural deaths, do you?"

Yendelela Obiri staggered to a halt along the forest trail and doubled over from the nausea She was close to complete exhaustion, her khaki slacks and shirt soaked with sweat, her head swimming with the strange double vision of the bio chips

Gasping in the thin mountain air, she almost sank to her knees Almost But when she closed her eyes she saw what Koku saw, heard and smelled and felt what the young gorilla was experiencing

Koku was being chased Hunters were pursuing him And the young male was too inexperienced, too tame, to realize what danger he was in

"You are not alone," Yendelela muttered, knowing that Koku could hear her through the biochips implanted in their brains "Lela is near, Koku Lela is coming "

Fighting down the bile burning in her throat, she adjusted the straps of her heavy backpack and staggered up the steep wooded slope, pushing through brush and nettles that flailed at her from both sides of the narrow mountain trail The sun

was warm, but the cool mountain breeze chilled the perspiration that beaded on her dark, intent face

Her teachers, back at the university, had been doubtful about allowing Lela to do a field mission with a male gorilla Even Professor Yeboa, who had been her advisor, her sponsor, her secret love, had expressed doubts

"The hills can be dangerous for a city girl," Yeboa had said He had smiled, as he always did when he reminded Lela of her urban upbringing

"City streets can be dangerous, too," she had retorted, also smiling "I am not afraid "

The aim of the project was to repopulate the area that had been set aside as a safe reserve for the mountain gorilla Over the past half century the gorillas had been driven nearly to extinction, but now at last an ecologically viable tract of uplands had been set aside for them, thanks to Nkona Three female gorillas had already been placed in the reserve by other students and rangers, waiting for a male to complete a viable group Lela's task was to guide Koku to the females, using the biochips to help control the young male

Lela had even met the Great Soul of Africa, Dhouni Nkona himself He had come to the university to see personally how they were rearing the infant gorillas from the zoo population and teaching them to survive in the wild