"Kuttner, Henry - Red Gem of Mercury" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

Quite suddenly Vane remembered a sentence Zaravin, the Mercutian, had
emphasized.
"The owner of the gem at times falls into a state of suspended animation, during
which the jewel rests and revitalizes itself."
Suspended animation! Good God! How long would it last? Vane thought frantically,
Will l come back to life at the bottom of the river, with rocks tied to my
ankles? How long--
Rough hands lifted him. He was wrapped in sacking and carried. Downstairs, by
the feel of the jolting motion. Then he lay motionless, till he heard the sound
of a car's motor starting.
"Head for the river," a low voice commanded.
Traffic sounds came to him. Someone muttered, "Hurry up. There's a police car
next to us--"
And a siren began to scream ominously.
What was happening? Vane cursed silently, furiously. If he could only move! But
no, he could merely lie helpless as the roar of the motor mounted louder and
louder and the car jolted more uncomfortably.
"They're catching up. . ."
"Throw the stiff out," somebody suggested. "Under their wheels. That'll stop
'em. If we don't--"
A door-latch clicked. Vane felt himself moving. He fell heavily, rolled over and
over, and lay still.
Brakes screeched. Footsteps pounded on the pavement. The gunny-sacking was
stripped from Vane's face.
Staring up glassily, he saw a uniformed officer bending over him, dim against a
star-sprinkled night sky.
"It's Vane!" the man gasped. "The escaped con!"
He turned, shouting. "Keep on after those mugs. Radio headquarters to send a car
out. Tell 'em I got Vane--and he's dead!"



Chapter 4
The Road to Life



VANE lay on an operating table, a sheet over his naked body, and stared blankly
at a bare white ceiling. He could not move. He could not tell the coroner or the
medical examiner that he was alive, that an autopsy would be murder, that he had
agonizingly felt the cut of a scalpel into his arm, though no blood flowed from
the pale-lipped wound.
The coroner, his face partly hidden under a gauze mask, came forward, holding a
probe. He bent over Vane and delicately felt around the edges of the jewel on
the lawyer's forehead.
"Funny," he said over his shoulder. "I've never seen anything like it. By rights
it ought to have killed the man--it goes right through the bone. Maybe it did
kill him. I can't find any surface wounds on the body."
A deeper voice growled, "Too damn bad the murderers got away. I know Pasqual did
this, but I can't pin a thing on him."