"Thomas A. Easton - Alien Resonance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Easton Thomas A)

"But how?" cried Franklin. "I didn't hear a thing."
"Let me see!" Alec crowded in as best he could, leaning over three bodies,
bracing himself on hands and toes. There, scattered among Franklin's dirty
laundry, was a nest of broken shards, as colorful as ever, tinted violet by the
tent-filtered light.
Ybarra was poking among the fragments with a tentative finger. "Damn!" Di
grabbed a shard. Alec saw something else in the pile. Reaching for it, he
lurched, and for a moment his weight pressed Di into Franklin's side, still
wrapped in his sleeping bag.
When they emerged from the tent, each had a prize. Ybarra had a handful of
shards to analyze. Di had three. Franklin, with the rest wrapped in a
sweatshirt, let Ellen pick a few for herself.
Alec's find seemed whole. It was a convoluted lump, resembling an egg that had


file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Alien%20Resonance.txt (4 of 38) [12/28/2004 4:44:45 PM]
 file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Alien%20Resonance.txt

been half melted, pinched in the middle, stretched, and twisted. He held it out
to Ybarra, who shook his head. "You saw it first."
"But you fetched it."
Franklin reached toward it, his expression covetous. Alec had found it in his
tent, hadn't he? But he contented himself with running a finger over its curves.
Alec nestled it in his palm, stroking it with a thumb. At last, he slipped it
into his pants pocket.



Alec sighed as he pulled out of the parking area onto the gravel road that was
the next leg of the trip home. Ybarra echoed him, and then he asked, "May I
see...?"
Alec fished the lump he had taken from the ruins of the egg out of his pocket.
He stroked it with a thumb before he handed it over, and Ybarra did the same as
he received it.
"Feels good. Smooth, but..." His voice trailed off, bobbling as the Nissan
pick-up hit potholes and ruts. He held the thing up to the light. It glowed
gold, translucent, its surface alive with highlights. "I wonder what it is?"
Alec spared a glance for his friend. "Think it's the same stuff as the shell?"
"Looks like it." Ybarra drew a shard from his shirt pocket and held it up beside
the other. "Same color, same glow. Have to get them in the lab. Though that
won't tell us where it came from."
They rounded a curve and saw before them a single state police car, blocking
half the road a hundred yards away. The trooper straddled the other lane, waving
his arms for them to stop.
"Wonder what the roadblock's for," said Ybarra as Alec slowed the truck. He put
his shard away and handed the lump back to Alec. Alec put it away and patted his
pocket. "Some escaped con?"
As they stopped, Alec craned his neck out his window. "What's up?"
The state trooper was young, not long out of the state academy. His hair was
short, his face bare, his uniform a creased powder-blue. The name tag on his