"John DeChancie - Skyway 3 - Paradox Alley" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dechancie John)

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/John%20DeChancie%20-%20Paradox%20Alley.txt (16 of 269) [10/16/2004 4:41:28 PM]
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"Sure. I'll put the headbeams on."

I looked at the underside of the tunnel mouth as we drove
through the aperture. It was all metal inside. No earth or
debris rained down on us, and I couldn't for the life of me
figure out how this trick was being done, but I didn't have
much time to study it.

The tunnel was smooth-walled, lit by oval recessed fixtures
positioned at regular intervals directly overhead. Otherwise it
was featureless and reminded me of the Roadbug garage
planet, where the Bugs had caught us then dragged us across
light-years to this place. The tunnel bore through the mountain
for about half a kilometer before it debouched into a dimly lit,
expansive cavern.

But here the similarity to the Roadbug planet ended,
though the place did look like a garage. The skeletal shapes of
huge cranes and gantries loomed in the shadows. Strange ma-
chinery lay everywhere. There were scores of vehicles here,
too, some parked out in the middle of the floor and appearing
ready for use, others occupying numerous maintenance bays
recessed into me walls. The vehicles were of every shape and
description.

"How much to park here by the hour?" Sam wanted to
know.

"Where's the attendant?" I asked. "But seriously, folksтАФ
how the hell do we get up to the city from here?"

"Elevator, I guess," Carl said.

"Yeah," I said. "Where? This place is big. See anything?"

We roamed through the place for a few minutes.

"What's that?" Roland said, pointing.

"Where?"

"Looks like a ramp. See? Through that opening right there,

against the far wall. No, now you can't see itтАФbehind that