"Alexander Kazantsev - The Destruction of Faena" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kazantsev Alexander)

"Are you jesting?"
"Jesting is of no avail in my profession. Kutsi Merc is too good a ...
helper."



By a whim of the Dictator's, the Dread Wall round his Lair ran through
a tiny ruined shrine dividing it into two halves. This screened from view
the Blood Door, which was hardly noticeable in any case. The wall in the
lower part divided in obedience to the brain biocurrents written into the
program of the electronic automatons.
Mother Lua nervously gave the door its mental instructions and it
opened.
Ave and Kutsi Merc, who were standing in the half-ruined portico,
quickly proceeded through the gap, Lua followed them and the Wall closed
behind her. Only the ruins on the inner side of the wall showed where to
look for the vanished door.
Ave looked round. He was in a luxuriant garden. Sinuous lianas hung
down like snakes guarding their prey. Beyond the shaggy tree-trunks
lurked a gloom that seemed dense and clammy. Lua, the nocturnal
luminary whose name the nurse bore, had not yet begun to rise, and Jupi,
the brightest of the planets, was only just silvering the tree-tops. Under
them it was as dark as on a starless night.
The young Faetian's heart was thudding in his breast.
Kutsi Merc's pulse was throbbing evenly enough. He had gained access
to the Lair, into which not even a snake could crawl its way...




Chapter Two
 TWO SHORES

Ave Mar first met Kutsi Merc, his secretary, half a cycle before the
encounter with Mada on the Great Shore.
Ave Mar's steamcar stopped that day in a mountain pass on the
continent of the Culturals of Danjab.
The view took Ave's breath away. The ocean, revealed from high up,
seemed to ascend to the very heavens. The misty band of the horizon
looked like a ridge of lofty clouds.
Below lay Business City. The skyscrapers stood in concentric circles.
They were linked by ring and radial streets and avenues, on both sides of
which lay green parks and glittering lakes. In the city centre towered a
skyscraper resembling the conical axis of the monstrous Wheel of Business
Life.
Ave put his foot down on the pedal to open the high-pressure boiler
valve. The steam drive slowly moved the car from its place, accelerating it
to the required speed.
Steamcars had appeared very recently, but had quickly replaced the
obsolete vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. In their time,