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

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"Probably a fair-sized bomb, set to go off after we'd left the Antares," commented Colette
professionally. "Since no alarms went off when we entered the lifeboat or sealed from the ship, I
assume they took care of that earlier. Obviously the bomb was a cover maneuver, designed to
convince rescuers that anyone in that section of the ship had been vaporized- especially father
and myself."

"I see," nodded Ethan. "That way everyone would assume you two were dead ... until these two were
safely away and ready to put their demands. And no pursuit. Very clever. Of course, anyone walking
that section of the ship when the bomb happened to go off would just be plain oat of luck." He
glared at Walther, who ignored him.

"That's about it," continued Colette. "But with all the hem-ming and hawing, they ;blew their
timetable and didn't quite get away in time. Wouldn't have gotten away at all if Father hadn't
..." She shrugged.

"You ought to thank him for saving your life," Ethan said reprovingly.

Slue gave him another withering stare. "What life? Clot any idea what it's like to be rich, Mr.
Fortune? It's great. But to be rich and laughed at ..."

"Why don't you re-?" He bit his tongue. But she noticed.

"Reduce? Can't:. Glandular- irreversible, the docs say." She turned away irritably. "Oh, go freeze
yourself!"

"Listen," nut in Walther, sticking his head out into the light. "Regardless of what you think, we
planned it so nobody would get caught in that blowup. That's the only reason I didn't shoot you,
and you, the minute you stuck your faces into that lifeboat bay. If a search team found your body,
or his, or bits and pieces, then they'd start wondering just maybe why there was no sign of
theirs," he indicated the du Kanes. "A small chance, but Kotabit and the others wanted to be sure.
Yeah, good and sure! And now," he concluded with acidic finality, "we'll all freeze good and
surely dead."

"I'm not thrilled about dying in your company, chum," said Ethan with as much toughness as he
could muster, which wasn't much. "And I sure don't plan to. Anybody think of checking the boat
tridee?" Ire didn't leave to ask if it was in working order.

Colette du Kane was shaking her head slowly. "Just scrap. That's what September told us, anyhow. I
wouldn't know about such things myself, but I'm inclined to believe him."

"It certainly seems that we have nothing capable of even rudimentary communication," agreed
Williams heavily. "Let alone something that can transmit a continental distance."

Briefly, then, they were stuck.

Less briefly, they were stranded on a barely known world, thousands of kilometers from its only
humanx settlement, in weather that would make a corpulent walrus dive for his winter woolies. And