"Barbara Karmazin - Blackbird 2 - Out of the Dark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Karmazin Barbara)

were normally used by the crew for emergency repairs while still in flight status. From this angle, it felt like
he was climbing a ladder up the side of the ship to the airlock entry.

When he came to the hatch, he boosted himself inside as if he were climbing out of a swimming pool.
Tiny grabbed his hand and pulled Indio to his feet inside the airlock. He held up a message cube. Indio
accepted it and studied the interior diagram of the yacht glowing within. A bright red X marked the third
door on the left side where the two casualties of today's accident awaited his inspection and professional
judgment as to probable cause of death. After they'd bagged and transported the bodies to the Station
Hospital, an autopsy would determine the actual cause of death.

Tiny clipped a searchlight to the ceiling and turned on a second camcorder. A floating conglomeration of
frozen debris hanging in mid-air in the corridor gave them an instantaneous portrayal of the meteor's path
through the interior. The minute gravitational attraction of the bits of rubble had pulled them into clusters .

Indio launched himself down the corridor to the door of the third stateroom. His gait was a unique
adaptation of free-fall and weightlessness. He used gentle thrusts of his feet and hands against deck, wall
and cornerтАФa slow-motion swim through the airless hallway.

He stopped his momentum at the third door and rested his hand on the entry panel. It glowed bright
green and then the door slid open. Two bodies lay tangled on the floor beside the bed: a naked man and
woman frozen forever in their last frantic attempt to end their sexual embrace and don their bulky
spacesuits.

Selkieskins might have saved them, but they didn't have that option. They'd run out of time to save
themselves. Hell, when the Columbia shuttlecraft disintegrated upon re-entry sixty-three years ago in
2003, the entire incident happened in only fifteen seconds from beginning to end.

Indio unclipped his camcorder and recorded the couple from every angle. Tiny waited in the doorway
with two green body bags. A few more minutes and they'd be headed back to station. A tow ship would
show up in another hour and haul the yacht to the station for a complete forensics exam.

Cait would never die like this. His daughter Socorro would never die like this either. Cait and Socorro
had first claim on the symbiotes because they had discovered the abandoned cache of selkieskins on the
asteroid expedition three months ago.

****

Indio leaned over the countertop at the Orbital Police Station, pressed his palm against the ID panel, slid
the data card into the slot, then hit the send key on the computer console and downloaded his report into
the police files. His part in today's accident was over for now.

He turned, nodded at the police desk sergeant on duty and exited through the frosted plastic door onto
deck two. A woman in an indigo uniform with silver belt and boots entered the other end of the corridor.
She wore her dark blond hair pulled back into a severe bun, and the logo for United Planets Security
Forces glittered at her collar. Indio shifted the duffel bag that contained his selkieskin to his right shoulder
and kept walking.

Her gaze skittered away from the old burn scars ridging the left side of his face. Bright red spots flared
on her cheekbones. тАЬAre you Edelmiro Jesus Santiago de Arroyo?тАЭ