"Gordon R. Dickson - Hilifter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

across her knees, an open bottle of pink nail polish on the towel, and the
brush-cap to the bottle poised in her hand. The other was a tall, dark-haired,
very pretty lass with a lap-desk pulled down from the wall and a
hand-scriber on the desk where she was apparently writing a letter. For a
moment both stared at him, and his gun; and then the blonde, gave a
muffled shriek, pulled the towel over her head, and lay still, while the
brunette, staring at Cully, went slowly pale.
 "Jim!" she said.
"Sorry," said Cully. "The real name's Cully When. Sorry about this, too,
Lucy." He held the gun casually, but it was pointed in her general direction.
"I didn't have any choice."
A little of the color came back. Her eyes were as still as fragments of
green bottle glass.
"No choice about what?" she said.
"To come through this way," said Cully. "Believe me, if I'd known you
were here, I'd have picked any other way. But there wasn't any other way;
and I didn't know."
"I see," she said, and looked at the gun in his hand. "Do you have to point
that at me?"
"I'm afraid," said Cully, gently, "I do."
She did not smile.
"I'd still like to know what you're doing here," she said.
"I'm just passing through," said Cully. He gestured with the gun to the
emergency hatch to the Crew Section, overhead. "As I say, I'm sorry it has
to be through your cabin. But I didn't even know you were serious about
emigrating."
"People usually judge other people by themselves," she said
expressionlessly. "As it happened, I believed you." She looked at the gun
again. "How many of you are there on board?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that," said Cully.
"No. You couldn't, could you?" Her eyes held steady on him. "You know,
there's an old poem about a man like you. He rides by a farm maiden and
she falls in love with him, just like that. But he makes her guess what he is;
and she guesses . . . oh, all sorts of honorable things, like soldier, or
forester. But he tells her in the end he's just an outlaw, slinking through the
wood." Cully winced.
"Lucy тАУ" he said. "Lucy тАУ"
"Oh, that's all right," she said. "I should have known when you didn't call
me or get in touch with me, after the boat docked." She glanced over at her
friend, motionless under the towel. "You have the gun. What do you want us
to do?"
"Just sit still," he said. "I'll go on up through here and be out of your way
in a second. I'm afraid тАУ" He reached over to the phone on the wall and
pulled its cord loose. "You can buzz for the steward, still, after I'm gone," he
said. "But he won't answer just a buzzer until after the maneuver period's
over. And the stairway hatches are locked. Just sit tight and you'll be all
right."


He tossed the phone aside and tucked the gun in the waistband.