"Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 13 - The Face of the Deep" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

could kill 'em all in five minutes and they know it."
"You certainly must admit that there is no
chance of a break here, Captain Future," said
Captain Theron relievedly.
"It's a good, tight set-up," Curt admitted.
8
THE FACE OF THE DEEP
"Nevertheless, I'd like to 'scan' the cells. Wheel the
machine along, will you, Ezra?"
He began his X-Ray inspection of each cell
along the corridor. The, searchlight projector of the
scanner flooded each cell in turn with invisible
Roentgen rays. Through the fluoroscopic eyepiece,
Curt Newton could have seen the tiniest scrap of
metal in the cells.
But there was nothing. The gray-clad convicts
had not even any metal in their plastic belt-buckles
or shoes. Even their dishes, water-jugs and eating
utensils were of soft fiber or unbaked clay.
Curt paused as he reached John Rollinger's cell.
The mad Earthman had been confined in a cell to
himself. He sat muttering in a corner, paying no
attention to Captain Future's inspection.
"Hello, Rollinger -- how are you feeling?" Curt
asked him.
The ex-scientist stared at him, but made no
answer. His haggard face and peculiarly burning
eyes gave them all a creepy sensation.
"Hate to see a man with his mind shot like that,"
muttered Ezra in a low voice. " 'Specially, a man as
brilliant as he was."
John Rollinger had been a famous biophysicist,
Curt knew. He had specialized in encephalographic
research, testing the effect of various form of
radiation upon the human brain. Boldly using
himself as a subject, he was supposed to have
shattered his mind in his experiment.
"I wonder if he's really as mad as he looks,"
Captain Theron said skeptically. "The prosecution
at his trial maintained he killed his colleague in a
quarrel, and then used faked insanity to excuse
himself."
"Well, if he's fakin', it hasn't done him much
good," Ezra shrugged. "They sentenced him to
Cerberus just the same, for a homicidal maniac has
to be locked up just the same as a deliberate killer."
OREMOS, the slender and wiry
Venusian murderer in the next cell,
glared at Captain Future in silent hatred as his cell
was "scanned."