"Foster, Alan Dean - Cat-a-lyst" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

and he recognized the voice of Manco Ferndendez. By sitting erect and straining he could just make out the man's light, bobbing in the distance like an inquisitive will-o'-the-wisp. "Qu@ hay?" Blanco shouted. "Come and see." His brother's voice echoed off the dark stone walls. Da Rimini and,Manco took flashlight and lantern and moved to comply. The occasional flare of Trang Ho's camera accompanied them like a
parasitic firefly.
Left alone in the darkness, Carter whispered to Igor. "Turn your back to mine and let me work on your ropes."
It was not to be. Da Rimini soon returned and the two men had to separate hurriedly. Her light blinded them. "We have found something puzzling." The beam of the flashlight focused on Fewick. "You are the archaeologist. You mus' explain this thing to us." "Why should I help you?" Fewick shot back, with a resolve that made Carter proud. "Because if you do not I will shoot off your left testicle."
Fewick struggled to his feet. "Always ready to aid a lady in need of assistance."
Da Rimini wasn't about to leave the prisoners alone for any length of time. "The rest of you come too."
At the far end of the cavern a perfectly circular platform of exquisitely dressed stone surmounted the paving. Atop the platform and fashioned Of identical gray stone was a small circular building whose walls inclined inward. The structure was roofless and airy, the curving wall punctured
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by traditional trapezoidal Inca-style windows. In order to enter, one had to step around a single oddly carved rectangular block of stone that must have weighed several tons. "It looks just like the intihuatana," Fewick exclaimed in surprise. "The what?" Ashwood asked, puzzled. "An altar stone at Machu Picchu which is hewn out of the mountain itself. Its four comers point to the four points of the compass. The name
means 'the place where the sun is tied,' or more colloquially, 'the hitching post of the sun.' " He frowned. "But there is no sun here." "This isn't what you were brought to look at." An impatient Da Rimini prodded them forward.
They entered the little building and found themselves looking at a
gigantic egg.
Ix
THE egg was twice the size of Fewick's belly, which was saying some-
thing. Four legs of what appeared to be rutilated blue ceramic raised it two feet off the stone floor. "It won't move," Manco Femdndez informed them. "I tried."
The top and upper two thirds of the egg were completely covered with carvings and inscriptions. They resembled neither the Pusharo petroglyphs nor those which decorated the wall outside the cave. In the artificial light its surface shone like a pearl, lustrous and full of reticent whorls of iridescence. "If I am to examine it properly I will need my hands free," Fewick declared firmly. "All right." Da Rimini nodded to Blanco, who released the archaeologist. "But don' try nothin'."
Fewick favored her with a wan smile, then approached the egg and cautiously ran his fingers across the engraved surface. "It feels sticky in places, glassy-smooth in others. Most peculiar. If it is an Inca artifact it is unique." He glanced at the entrance to the circular shelter. "Clearly a
connection exists between this object and the replica of the intihuatana, but what it might be quite escapes me." "Never mind that." Da Rimini's hands were in constant motion, piercing the air like psychotic hummingbirds. "Is it valuable? Some kind of enormous gemstone, perhaps?" "I am not a geologist." Fewick gazed in fascination at the glistening, milky-white engraved ovoid. "Superficially it much resembles chalcedony, but the presence of iridescence suggests a different composition. It is not a moonstone. Quartz crystals larger than this have been found in Minas Gerais province in Brazil, but that is a long ways from here. Until now, the crystal skull of the Mayas has been the largest artifact of its type found in Mesoamerica. This is bigger, but less spectacular."
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"It mus' still be valuable." Da Rimini blinked in irritation as Trang Ho's camera flashed. "Wonderful," the reporter was bubbling. "Another major discovery. I'll get a series out of this trip, and maybe a book." "I hope y'all get a rare disease," Ashwood told her. "An' if you set that thing off in my face one more time, tied or not, so help me I'll
Oblivious, Ho continued to take pictures from different angles. "Well, if it is a kind of gemstone we will find out when we come back to this place," Da Rimini declared.
Manco Ferndndez was reluctant to leave. "You are sure you cannot make sense of this, gringo?" He was running his fingers over the deep engravings that covered the upper third of the object. "I note a few similarities to other Peruvian petroglyphs, but that is all. The majority of designs are unknown to me." "That is all right." He spoke proudly. "It is a good conversation piece. We will put it in front of the log ride at the park." "What's that?" His brother suddenly whirled and lowered the muzzle of his AK-47. Then he relaxed and smiled. "Crazy gringos and their pets. "
Fewick knelt and welcomed his cat into his arms. "You finally got lonely out there, did you, Moe?" He glanced up at Blanco. "Getting nervous, are we?" The brother grunted.
A worried Carter looked back toward the entrance to the cave. There was no sign of Macha.
Da Rimini was watching Fewick, a disgusted look on her face. "How touching." She kicked out at the tom, who easily avoided her foot and landed atop the ovoid. It paced there, watching her. "You know," said Ashwood conversationally, "you really are a firstclass bitch."
The Amazon ignored her, tapped the enigmatic egg. "I agree that this is interesting, but no matter how valuable it may be, it is too big for us to carry." "If we only knew what these meant." Manco used a finger to trace one of the indentations cut into the side of the artifact. "They might tell us
much about our ancestors." Moe leaned over, sniffing at him.
The egg began to hum. It was a steady susurration, unvarying in pitch, that rose rapidly in volume until it was as loud as a human voice. Manco Ferndndez let out a startled oath and jerked his hand away from the vitreous surface he'd been caressing as if he'd been burned. Da Rimini's gaze narrowed.
Moe continued to pace unconcernedly atop the object. Only when it
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began to glow with an intense white light did the cat leap lithely to the ground. It rubbed against Fewick's ankles, purring softly.
Ashwood was the only one with enough sense to make a dash for the exit. She didn't get very far, as the light simultaneously intensified and expanded to soundlessly engulf them all.
Car-ter blinked, having lost both footing and vision for an instant. Now he steadied himself, trying to focus on his surroundings.
The light had faded as quickly as a burst from Trang Ho's flash. The egg was still there, resting immovably on its four peculiar blue supports. Everyone had kept their feet and several were rubbing at their outraged eyes. "Madre de Dios, " Da Rimini mumbled. "What happened?"
Fewick was shaking his head, blinking at the floor. "That is not a
gemstone. It is a device of some kind." "That is crazy," said Da Rimini. Holding the fluorescent lantern high while keeping a wary eye on the now quiescent ovoid, she started backing out of the room. "We have enough treasure. Let's finish our business here an' leave this place."
Outside the circular stone chamber, Manco FernAndez stepped around the intihuatana before halting uncertainly. He played the flashlight he was carrying over the walls of the cave. "This does not look right." "What are you babbling about?" Da Rimini looked back at him. "Hurry up." "No." He stepped up alongside her. "It is different somehow. See there?"
With his light he illuminated one of the bins which lined the righthand side of the cave. Carter stared. The stonework was the same, but he did not remember the intricate inscriptions which covered much of the rock nor the complex bas-reliefs.
Ignoring the guns, Fewick let out an excited cry and rushed forward to run trembling fingers over the inscriptions. "Writing! Do you realize what this means? It has always been believed that the Incas never developed writing." His voice rose triumphantly. "This means the Baxter Prize for certain, perhaps even a Nobel!"
Ashwood was frowning. "I don' recall seein' any writing when we
come in." She sniffed at the air. "Don' it seem drier in here than before?"
Manco Ferndndez's fears vanished in light of the discovery his brother made next. While Fewick wept over the unprecedented inscriptions, Blanco tried the handle of the wooden door which barred the way into the modest structure. When it refused to open he hammered on the catch with the butt of his rifle.
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On the third try the ancient, desiccated latch gave way. So did the entire door, which buckled in the middle. The contents of the structure buried Blanco before he could get clear, flooding outward and carrying him partway across the floor.
When the avalanche finally ceased, Blanco lay flailing wildly in a sea of gold.
Gold plates and cups, gold strips and bars, necklaces and rings and earrings of gold and silver. The glistening bounty multiplied the light of the lantern and sent it careening joyfully across the dark stone walls and ceiling.
Like everyone else Carter was stunned speechless. The small highwalled bin probably held several tons of gold. And there were other bins, similarly shaped and secured, lining the right-hand side of the cave for a distance of at least fifty yards.
He peered past the last. No entrance, no small circle of sunlight, greeted his gaze. He checked his watch. It was still late afternoon. The sun should still be up. For that matter, he did not remember that any of the small bins they had passed on their way in had been secured with wooden doors.
Trang Ho was of similar mind. "We have come out somewhere else from where we started. This is wonderful!" She began taking pictures like mad. "This is marvelous, this is fantastic!" "This sucks," muttered Ashwood.