"Alan Dean Foster - Icerigger 1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

Something hit the boat a giant hammerblow on its side, set it tumbling crazily. Ethan got a fast
glimpse of the planet running all around the circumference of a port, much too fast. Colette
started screaming. Forward, Walther was cursing and groaning as he worked the controls, yelling
about the time he no longer had and the time he'd wasted.

Another sickening lunge brought the sunlit Antares into view. It was far oared receding rapidly.
:hut not so rapidly that Ethan couldn't make out the gaping hole in its near side.

He turned back to the interior of the boat. All of a sudden there seemed to be a fifth figure in
the passenger section. It was not strapped in and lurched about drunkenly back near the storage
section. For a moment Ethan thought his eyes hadn't become properly adapted.

The boat rolled insanely and Walther yelled helplessly. Williams shouted "┬оh my!" And this strange
rearward apparition bellowed in slurred Terranglo, "A joke is a joke, but by all the Black Holes
and Purpling Prominences, enough is enough!"

At that point Ethan's eyes unadjusted to the darkness and everything else.

Chapter Two



He was indisputably dead, frozen alive. He shivered.

Wait a minute. If he was dead he shouldn't have been able to shiver. To make sure, he shivered
again. His body jerked, once, twice. It occurred to him that there was an external source behind
the jerks. Blinking, he turned his head. The ebony face of Milliken Williams stared down at him.

" How are you feeling, my dear Fortune?" he inquired so-licitously. Ethan noticed that the
schoolteacher was wearing a thick coat of some heavy brown material. It had orange patching and
was puffed in snots, but looked warm.

Ire rolled over and sat up. The effort made him dizzy and it took another minute for his eyes to
focus. Immediately he noticed that he was clad in a similar garment, that it extended well below
his knees, and that it was at least two sizes too large for him.

Williams offered him a cup of black coffee. It steamed fero-ciously. Ethan took it in the coat-
gloves and downed half the. boiling liquid in two gulps. At the moment he didn't care if he
vulcanized his esophagus. Something at his back seemed willing to support his weight, so he leaned


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back, sighed. deeply, and inspected his surroundings.

The du Kanes sat across from him. They wore the same brown-orange overcoats, only theirs ht. The
elder du Kane poked thoughtfully at a tin of something in front of him. A wisp of steam floated
from it. Selecting from the contents, he popped something into his mouth, frowned, swallowed, and