"Frank Herbert - Destination Void 3 The Lazarus Effect" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

elbows. Duque caught his breath in the sudden onslaught of pain and wrenched
out another shrill whistle. Somebody stumbled against him. Hands reached under
his armpits and lifted him clear of the scorched bubbly that had been the deck.
Some of it came loose with him and stuck to his bare skin. Duque knew who held
him by the jasmine smell of her hair -- Ellie, the neighbor woman with the
short, stubby legs and beautiful voice.

"Duque," she said, "let's go find your ma."

He heard something wrong in her voice. It rasped low in a dry throat and
cracked when she spoke.

"Ma," he said. He knuckled his eye open and saw a nightmare of movement and
firelight.
Ellie shouldered them through the crowd, saw that he was looking around and
slapped his hand away. "Look later," she said. "Right now you hang on to my
neck. Hold tight."

After that one brief glimpse, there was no need to repeat the order. He
clutched both arms around Ellie's neck. A small whimper escaped his throat.
Ellie continued to push them through a crowd of people -- voices all around
saying words Duque did not understand. Movement against the others peeled away
chunks of bubbly from his skin. It hurt.

That one look at out remained indelibly in Duque's memory. Fire had been coming
out of the dark water! It coiled up out of the water accompanied by that thick,
boiling sound and the air was so full of steam that people were shadow clumps
against the hot red glow of flames. Screams and shouts still sounded all
around, causing Duque to hold even tighter to Ellie's neck. Chunks of the fire
had rocketed into the sky high above their island. Duque did not understand
this but he heard the fire crash and sizzle through the body of the island into
the sea beneath.

Why water burn? He knew the whistle-words but Ellie would not understand.

The raft tipped sharply under Ellie and sent her sprawling beneath the trampling
feet with Duque atop her shielded from the burning deck. Ellie cursed and
gasped. More people fell around them. Duque felt Ellie sinking into the
melting organics of the deck. She struggled at first, thrashing like a fresh-
caught muree that his mother had put into his hands once before she cooked it.
Ellie's twisting slowed and she began moaning low in her throat. Duque, still
clutching Ellie's neck, felt hot bubbly against his hands and jerked them away.
Ellie screamed. Duque tried to push himself away from her but the press of
bodies all around prevented his escape. He felt the hair at the nape of his
neck standing up. A questing whistle broke from his nose but there was no
response.

The deck tilted again and bodies rolled onto Duque. He felt hot flesh, some of
it warm-wet. Ellie gasped once, very deep. The air changed. The people
screaming, "Oh, no! Oh, no!" stopped screaming. Many people began coughing all