"Evans,.Linda.-.Sleipnir" - читать интересную книгу автора (Evans Linda)

also didn't have time to waste backtracking for water, since I wasn't
at all certain it would be there anymore.

I had plenty of ammunition in my packЧbut on further reflection I
remembered you can't fuel a carbide lamp with smokeless
powder. Besides, what would I do afterward with all those iron-
jacketed pistol bullets? Eat them? The idea of starving did nothing
to lighten my moodЧand if I didn't find Niflheim soon, I quite likely
would starve to death.

What was it the sergeants were always telling usЧprior planning
prevents piss-poor performance? I laughed aloud and began
stowing my ammo again. The way things were looking, I should've
packed in a whole lot more food, and a whole lot less "insurance." I
was going to be an awfully embarrassed ghost if I showed up as
an emaciated corpse in Hel's death hall while lugging around
enough hardware to storm Grenada . . . again.

I shook my head and finished stowing my arsenal. Poor Klaus . . .
He really hadn't been able to figure out why I'd brought all this stuff
along. His first question to me, back in the world of sunlight and
wind and rain, had been why I wanted to pick the most dangerous,
least explored cave in northern Europe and explore it as far as I
could get, when the only time I'd spent in any cave was the night I'd
bivouacked in a genuine prehistoric site in the Neanderthal Valley
while on military maneuvers.

Being me, naturally I'd said, "That's a very good question," and
then had proceeded to lie for all I was worthЧwhile plopping
hundred-dollar bills down in front of him. Fortunately he had run out
of questions before I ran out of money. His second question had
been why in God's name (his God's name, anyway) I wanted to
carry a bunch of guns on a spelunking trip. My answerЧmore
hundred-dollar billsЧhadn't satisfied him until his stack was a
whole lot taller than mine.

I just hadn't seen any sense in trying to explain that facing down
Niflheim's permanent residents was probably going to call for all
the firepower I could lug with me. So call me paranoid. Apparitions
like Sleipnir aren't that easy to explain. Or believe, for that matter.
Quite probably I was the only person left alive in the world who did
believe.

I hadn't packed that AR-180 assault rifle for target practice.

But I didn't tell Klaus that. I just said I had no intention of dying
slowly at the bottom of some cliff, if I happened to fall and shatter
half my bones, then laid down more money until he shut up and
agreed. It'd cost me nearly my whole severance pay, but he'd
bought it. I glanced at the bottomless chimney. He'd bought it, all