"Alan Dean Foster - For Love Of Mother-Not" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

УNor do I, friend.Ф
УPerhaps,Ф Arrapkha suggested, Уsomeone wished a private conversation with her and will bring her back in the morning?Ф
Flinx shook his head a second time. УI think that since she didnТt go with them voluntarily, she wonТt be allowed to come back voluntarily. Regardless, one thing she always told me was not to sit around and stare blankly at the inexplicable but always to try and find answers. If she does come walking freely home tomorrow, then I can at least try to meet her coming.Ф
УThen youТre determined to go out after her?Ф Arrapkha lifted bushy black eyebrows.
УWhat else can I do?Ф
УYou could wait. YouТre a nice young fellow, Flinx-boy.Ф He waved toward the distant avenue. УMost every-one in the marketplace who knows you thinks so, also.You wonТt lack for a place to stay or food to eat if you decide to wait for her. Your problem is that youТre too young, and the young are always overanxious.Ф
УSorry, Arrapkha. I know you mean well for me, but I just canТt sit around here and wait. I think IТd be wasting my time and, worse, maybe hers as well. Mother Mastiff doesnТt have much time left to her.Ф
УAnd what if her time, excuse me, has already fled?Ф Arrapkha asked forcefully. Subtlety was not a strong trait of the marketplaceТs inhabitants. УWill you involve your-self then in something dangerous which has chosen to spare you?Ф
УI have to know. I have to go after her and see if I can help.Ф
УI donТt understand,Ф Arrapkha said sadly. УYouТre a smart young man, much smarter than 1. Why risk your-self? She wouldnТt want you to, you know. SheТs not really your mother.Ф
УMother or mother-not,Ф Flinx replied, УsheТs the only mother IТve ever known. ThereТs more to it than simple biology, Arrapkha. The years have taught me that much.Ф
The older man nodded. УI thought you might say something like that, Flinx-boy. Well, I can at least wish you luck. ItТs all I have to give you. Do you have credit?Ф
УA little, on my card.Ф
УIf you need more, I can transfer.Ф Arrapkha started to pull out his own card.
УNo, not now, anyway. I may need such help later.Ф He broke into a broad smile. УYouТre a good friend, Arrapkha. Your friendship is as solid as your woodwork.Ф He turned. УDid you see which direction these figures took?Ф
УThatТs little to start on.Ф He pointed to the north. УThat way, up the alley. They could have turned off any time. And in the weatherФ-he indicated the clouds hanging limply overhead-УtheyТll have left no trail for you to follow.Ф
УPerhaps not,Ф Flinx admitted. УWeТll see.Ф
УI expect you will, Flinx-boy, since you feel so strongly about this. All I can do, then, is wish luck to you.Ф He turned and strode back up the street toward his shop, keeping the slickertic tight around his head and neck.
Flinx waited until the rain had swallowed up the older man before going back inside and closing the door behind him. He wandered morosely around the living area, salvaging this or that from the mess and returning things to their proper places. Before long, he found himself in Mother MastiffТs room. He sat down on the bed and stared at the ajar slip-me-out that led to the alley.
УWhat do you think, Pip? Where did she go, and who took her, and why? And how am I going to find her? I donТt even know how to start.Ф
He shut his eyes, strained, tried to sense the kinds of emotions he knew she must be generating, wherever she had been taken. There was nothing. Nothing from Mother
Mastiff, nothing from anyone else. His Talent mocked him. He started fixing up the bedroom, hoping that contact with familiar objects might trigger some kind of reaction in his mind. Something, anything, that would give him a start on tracking her down. Pip slipped off his shoulder and slithered across the bed, playing with covers and pillows.
There were gaps-missing clothing-in the single closet, Flinx noted. Whoever had abducted her evidently intended to keep her for a while. The sight cheered him because they would not have troubled to take along clothing for someone they intended to kill immediately.
Pip had worked its way across the bed to the night table and was winding its sinuous way among the bottles and containers there. УBack off that, Pip, before you break something. ThereТs been enough damage done here today.Ф The irritation in his voice arose more out of personal upset than any real concern. The minidrag had yet to knock over anything.
Pip reacted, though not to his masterТs admonition. The snake spread luminous wings and fluttered from the tabletop to the slip-me-out. It hovered there, watching him. While Flinx gaped at his pet, it flew back to the night table, hummed over a bottle, then darted back to the opening.
FlinxТs momentary paralysis left him, and he rushed to the end table. The thin plasticine bottle that had attracted Pip was uncapped. It normally held a tenth liter of a particularly powerful cheap perfume of which Mother Mastiff was inordinately fond. Now he saw that the bottle was empty.
If Mother Mastiff had retained enough presence of mind to remember that the Drallarian gendarmery occasionally employed the services of tracking animals-for the first time hope crowded despair from FlinxТs thoughts. Those animals could track odors even through MothТs perpetual dampness.
If an Alaspinian minidrag possessed the same ability ... Was he completely misinterpreting the flying snakeТs actions? УPip?Ф
The flying snake seemed to accept the mention of its name as significant, for it promptly spun in midair and darted through the slip-me-out. Flinx dropped to his hands and knees and crawled after. In seconds, he was in the alley again. As he climbed to his feet, he searched for his pet. It was moving eastward, almost out of sight.
УPip, wait!Ф The snake obediently halted, hovering in place until its master had caught up. Then it took off up the alley again.
Flinx settled into a steady run. He was an excellent runner and in superb condition, on which he had always prided himself. He resolved to follow the flying snake until one or the other of them dropped.
Any moment he expected the snake to pause outside one of the innumerable faceless structures that peppered the commercial sections of Drallar. But while the minidrag twisted and whirled down alleys and up streets, not once did it hesitate in its steady flight. Soon Flinx found his wind beginning to fail him. Each time he stopped, the snake would wait impatiently until its master caught up again.
Drallar was the largest city on Moth, but it was a village compared to the great cities of Terra or the under-ground complexes of Hivehom and Evoria, so Flinx was not surprised that when Pip finally began to slow, they had reached the northwestern outskirts of the metropolis. Here the buildings no longer had to be built close to one another. Small storage structures were scattered about, and individual homes of blocked wood and plastic began to blend into the first phalanx of evergreen forest. Pip hesitated before the trees, zooming in anxious circles, soaring to scan the treetops. It ignored FlinxТs entreaties and calls until finally satisfied, whereupon the snake turned and dropped down to settle once again on the familiar perch of his masterТs shoulder.
Turning a slow circle, Flinx fought to pick up even a fragment of lingering emotion. Once again, his efforts met with failure. It seemed clear that whoever had carried off Mother Mastiff had taken her into the forest and that the olfactory trail that had led Pip so far had finally dissipated in the steady onslaught of mist and rain. On a drier world or in one of MothТs few deserts, things might have been different, but here Pip had come to a dead end.
After a momentТs thought, Flinx started away from the trees. In addition to the storage buildings and homes, several small industrial complexes were visible nearby, including two of the ubiquitous sawmills that ringed the city and processed MothТs most prolific crop. Plinx wandered among them until he located a public corn station on a service street. He stepped inside and slid the spanda-wood door shut behind him. Even after curing, spanda retained Сa significant coefficient of expansion. When he closed the door, it sealed itself against the elements, and only the ventilation membranes would keep him from suffocating. He took out his battered credcard and slid it into the receptacle on the unit, then punched the keyboard. A pleasant-looking middle-aged woman appeared on the small viewscreen. УYes, sir. What can I do for you?Ф
УIs there a Missing Persons Bureau in the Drallar Municipal Strata?Ф
УJust a moment, please.Ф There was a pause while she glanced at something out of range of the pickup.
УHuman or alien?Ф
УHuman, please.Ф
УNative or visitor?Ф
УNative.Ф
УYou wish connection?Ф
УThank you, yes.Ф The woman continued to stare at him for a moment, and Flinx decided she was fascinated by the coiled shape riding his shoulder. The screen finally flashed once and then cleared.
This time, the individual staring back at him was male, bald, and bored. His age was indeterminate, his attitude barely civil. Flinx had never liked bureaucrats. УYes, what is it?
УLast night,Ф he declared, Уor early this morningФ-in his rush through the city streets heТd completely lost track of the time-УI-my mother disappeared. A neighbor saw some people running away down an alley, and our house was all torn apart. I donТt know how to start looking for her. I think sheТs been taken out of the city via the north-west quadrant, but I canТt be sure.Ф
The man perked up slightly, though his voice sounded doubtful. УI see. This sounds more like a matter for the police than for Missing Persons.Ф
УNot necessarily,Ф Flinx said, Уif you follow my meaning.Ф
УOh.Ф The man smiled understandingly. УJust a moment. IТll check for you.Ф He worked a keyboard out of
FlinxТs view. УYes, there was a number of arrests made last night, several of them including women. How old is your mother?Ф
УClose to a hundred,Ф Flinx said, Уbut quite lively.Ф