"Raymond Jones - Renegades of Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Raymond)

yearsтАФan infinity of light years' from Earth. Who can tell? What
does it matter? More important is: When?"

"When?" he asked stupidly.

"When, yes. How much temporal displacement is there
between your intrusion and our arrival here?"

"I don't understand," Joe said weakly. "Wasn't it a matter of
seconds between the time I fell on the Hill and my appearance
here?" He felt of his face uncertainly. His beardтАФor lack of
itтАФwas the same. He hadn't arrived suddenly with a Rip Van
Winkle appearance.

"No, you don't understand. You don't understand anything.
Try to understand this: We are lost. Completely and totally lost. I
doubt that anyone has our coordinates. Our only hope is beacon
scanning. Perhaps they can find us that way. And you are
responsible. YouтАФJoe SimmonsтАФyou put us into this
predicament. You are the one wholly responsible for our being
utterly lost in time and in space. Can you understand that?"

She turned and marched furiously through the rain forest. Joe
stood with her words echoing in his skull тАФwhich seemed at the
moment empty of everything else.

Lost.

Not only in space, but in time.

She was right: He understood none of it.

The girl had disappeared into the depths of the forest while
Joe pondered her words. He smashed through the dense foliage
in the direction she had gone. The gloom of the wet growth
became thicker and darker as he penetrated. It seemed
impossible that Tamarina had come this way. He had lived for
six months in the jungles and he was sure there was no way
through here without a machete.

He decided to turn back, and at that moment Tamarina's
contemptuous voice came from his left. "What are you doing? I
thought you were with me. Come this way."

When he turned to look in the direction from which her voice
came he saw a narrow opening between air roots as thick as
sewer pipes. He couldn't see Tamarina yet, but he crawled
through the space and glimpsed her form dimly ahead. She
moved on rapidly as if challenging him to keep up with her.