"Brian Herbert - Dune - Nightime Shadows On Open Sand" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

As the 'thopter settled onto the churned sands, Kiel popped open the hatch. The temperature-
controlled atmosphere hissed out, replaced by a wave of heat. He coughed dust.

Garan leaned over from the cockpit and sniffed hard. "Smell it." The odor of burnt cinnamon struck
his nostrils. "Spice blow for sure."

Josten squeezed past Kiel and dropped onto the soft ground. Amazed, he bent down, picked up a
handful of ochre sand and touched it to his lips. "Can we scoop up some fresh spice and take it
back? Must be worth a fortune."

Kiel had been thinking the same thing, but now he turned to the newcomer with scorn. "We don't
have the processing equipment. You need to separate it from the sand, and you can't do that with
your fingers."

Garan spoke in a quieter, but firmer voice. "If you went back to Carthag and tried to sell raw
product to a street vendor you'd be hauled in front of Governor RabbanтАФor worse yet, have to


file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...20Nightime%20Shadows%20On%20Open%20Sand.txt (1 of 12) [1/3/2005 12:29:29 AM]
 file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Brian%20Herbert%20-%20Dune%20-%20Nightime%20Shadows%20On%20Open%20Sand.txt

explain to Count Fenring how some of the Emperor's spice ended up in a patrolman's pockets."

As the troopers tromped out to the ragged pit at the center of the dissipating dust cloud, Josten
glanced around. "Is it safe for us to be here? Don't the big worms go to spice?"

"Afraid, kid?" Kiel asked.

"Let's throw him to a worm if we see one," Garan suggested. "It'll give us time to get away."

Kiel saw movement in the sandy excavation, shapes squirming, buried things that tunneled and
burrowed, like maggots in rotten meat. Josten opened his mouth to say something, then clamped it
shut again.

A whiplike creature emerged from the sand, two meters long with fleshy segmented skin. It was the
size of a large snake, its mouth an open circle glittering with needle-sharp teeth that lined its
throat.

"A sandworm!" Josten said.

"Only a runt," Kiel scoffed.

"NewbornтАФdo you think?" Garan asked.

The worm waved its eyeless head from side to side. Other slithering creatures, a nest of them,
squirmed about as if they'd been spawned in the explosion.

"Where in the hells did they come from?" Kiel asked.

"Wasn't in my briefing," Garan said.