"James Herbert - The Survivor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert James)



And then it was gone. As his mind had rushed to meet it, the memory had evaded
him, hiding itself away in some dark recess.

'What's up, Dave? You look ghastly - have you remembered something?' Tewson's
voice broke through the emptiness that remained.

Keller ran a trembling hand across his eyes. 'No, it's okay. For a moment, I thought
I was going to remember. But it's gone. I can'tтАжтАЩ

'It'll come, Dave,' said Tewson softly. 'Give it time. It'll come back.'

'Perhaps I don't want to remember, Harry. Perhaps it's better that I don't.'

Tewson shrugged. 'Maybe. D'you want me to go on?'

Keller nodded.

'It took five days to trace and note all the available cockpit instruments.
Fortunately, many indication dials are designed to retain an imprint of what was
being displayed at the time of impact and, once it had all been plotted, nothing was
found to be in an incorrect position, nor was there any evidence of any major
electrical fault that could have contributed to the cause of the accident.

'All the aircraft's maintenance records have been impounded and they're being
sifted through at this moment. So far they've found nothing of any importance
except for a strut bolt on the bogie trim cycling unit that was found to be missing
on the last check, and that was immediately replaced, of course, before the Jumbo
was released again for flight.

The technical entries up to the day before the accident, and dating back to the
previous year, reported no serious problems with the aircraft. The engines have
been recovered and stripped and, as yet, nothing has been found that indicates any
were malfunctioning prior to the crash. In fact, if my theory is correct, it was the
engines that prevented the Jumbo from dropping like a stone.'


file:///F|/rah/James%20Herbert/Herbert_James_-_The_Survivor__(proofed).htm (20 of 227) [5/21/03 10:08:38 PM]
Herbert, James - The Survivor UC FR


'Your theory?' asked Keller, well aware that Tewson's 'theories' often and
uncannily proved to be correct.

Well, I'll get to that in a moment. Nothing's been proved yetтАЩ

He took another long swallow from his glass, and pulled a face at the beer which
had begun to lose its bite. 'It was a cold night, so the anti-ice system has been
checked. Again: no fault. The remains of the fuel systems are still being checked.