"Charles L. Harness-Stalemate in Space" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harness Charles L)

He had not as yet looked at her.
 She crossed the balcony, simultaneously grasping the pistol he offered her and looking down into the
courtyard. There seemed to be nearly twenty Terrans lying about, in pools of their own blood.
Only one man-- a Terran officer of very high rank-- was left standing. His arms were folded somberly
across his chest, and he studied the killer above him almost casually. But when the woman came out,
their eyes met, and he started imperceptibly.
Evelyn Kane felt a horrid chill creeping over her. The man's hair was white, now, and his proud face
lined with deep furrows, but there could be no mistake. It was Gordon, Lord Kane.
Her father.
The sweat continued to grow on her forehead, and she felt for a moment that she needed only to wish
hard enough, and this would be a dream. A dream of a big, kind, dark-haired man with laugh-wrinkles
about his eyes, who sat her on his knee when she was a little girl and read bedtime stories to her from a
great book with many pictures.
An icy, amused voice came through: "Our orders are to kill all prisoners. It is entertaining to shoot
down helpless men, isn't it? It warms me to know that I am cruel and wanton, and worthy of my trust."
Even in the midst of her horror, a cold, analytical part of her was explaining why the Commandant had
called her to the balcony. Because all captured Terrans had to be killed, he hated his superiors, his own
men, and especially the prisoners. A task so revolting he could not relegate to his own officers. He must
do it himself, but he wanted his underlings to know he loathed them for it. She was merely a symbol of
that contempt. His next words did not surprise her.
"It is even more stimulating to require a shuddering female to kill them. You are shuddering, you
know?"
She nodded dumbly. Her palm was so wet that a drop of sweat dropped from it to the floor. She was
thinking hard. She could kill the Commandant and save her father for a little while. But then the problem
of detonating the pile remained, and it would not be solved more quickly by killing the man who
controlled the pile area. On the contrary if she could get him interested in her--
"So far as our records indicate," murmured Perat, "the man down there is the last living Terran within
The Defender. It occurred to me that our newest clerk would like to start off her duties with a bang. The
Faeg is adjusted to a needlebeam. If you put a bolt between the man's eyes, you may dance for me
tonight, and perhaps there will be other nights-- "
The woman seemed lost in thought for a long time. Slowly, she lifted the ugly little weapon. The
doomed Terran looked up at her peacefully, without expression. She lowered the Faeg, her arm
trembling.
Gordon, Lord Kane, frowned faintly, then closed his eyes. She raised the gun again, drew cross hairs
with a nerveless wrist, and squeezed the trigger. There was a loud, hollow cough, but no recoil. The
Terran officer, he eyes still closed and arms folded, sank to the ground, face up. Blood was running from
a tiny hole in his forehead.
The man leaning on the balustrade turned and looked at Evelyn, at first with amused contempt, then
with narrowing, questioning eyes.
"Come here," he ordered.
The Faeg dropped from her hand. With a titanic effort she activated her legs and walked toward him.
He was studying her face very carefully.
She felt that she was going to be sick. Her knees were so weak that she had to lean on the coping.
With a forefinger he lifted up the mass of golden curls that hung over her right forehead and examined
the scar hidden there, where the mentors had cut into her frontal lobe. The tiny doll they had created for
her writhed uneasily in her waist purse, but Perat seemed to be thinking of something else, and missed the
significance of the scar completely.
He dropped his hand. "I'm sorry," he said with a quiet weariness. "I shouldn't have asked you to kill
the Terran. It was a sorry joke." Then: "Have you ever seen me before?"
"No," she whispered hoarsely. His mind was in hers, verifying the fact.