"Foster,.Alan.Dean.-.Splinter.Of.The.Mind's.Eye" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

III



THEY conversed in whispers as they made their way down the metal walkway toward the better-lit buildings. More and more miners and other figures began to appear, materializing out of the mists.

"The town's beginning to come alive," Leia murmured. "They probably run three alternating shifts at the mine. Looks like one is just letting out."

"I don't know," Luke confessed, "but you've got to do something about your walk. Slouch some more."

She nodded, made an effort to comply. Luke tried not to stare at passing faces, afraid one might be staring back at them.

"You're still too tense. Relax. There, that's better."

They stopped before a reasonably quiet, fairly well maintained structure that advertised itself as a tavern.

"It looks peaceful enough." He turned. "Threepio, you and Artoo wait out here. No sense asking for trouble. Find a dark corner somewhere and stay quiet until we come back."

"You don't have to urge me, Master Luke," the tall golden 'droid exclaimed fervently. "Come on, Artoo." Both 'droids headed for a narrow passageway between the tavern and its neighboring building.

"What do you think, Princess? Should we take a chance?"

"I'm starvingЕ we've wasted enough time." She put a hand over the door switch. Immediately the double doors slid apart.

Lights and noise and talk in overwhelming quantities assailed them instantly. Having exposed themselves, they had no choice but to enter, as casually as they could manage.

Low booths filled with hectic humanity honeycombed the tavern interior. The miasma of narcotic incense and other smokes nearly asphyxiated Luke, and he had to struggle not to cough.

"What's wrong?" The Princess looked worried, though unaffected by the decadent atmosphere. "People are looking at you."

"It'sЕ the air," he explained, fighting to breathe normally. "There's something in it. A whole bunch of somethings."

The Princess chuckled. "Too much for you, fighter pilot?"

Luke wasn't ashamed to admit it. When he could spare the wind for talk again, he told her, "Basically, I'm a country boy, Leia. I haven't had too much exposure to sophisticated entertainments."

She sniffed the air appraisingly. "I wouldn't call these scents sophisticated. Thick, yes, but not sophisticated."

Somewhere near the center of the human whirlpool they miraculously came upon an empty table. The Princess concentrated intently on the tabletop when the human waiter approached them. She needn't have worried. He didn't give them a glance.

"Your pleasure?" he inquired simply, distantly. The man smoked something on the job, Luke noted.

"What's best tonight?" he asked the man, striving to sound like someone who'd just spent ten hours in the bowels of the earth.

"Kommerken steak, flank cut; and ootoowergsЕ usual supplements."

"For two," Luke told him, keeping conversation to a minimum.

That appeared to suit the attendant fine. "Got it," he replied with equal perfunctoriness, and waded off into the mob.