"Keith Laumer & Eric Flint - Future Imperfect" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

asleep or in a coma. Then his eyes opened suddenly. They were the only part of him that
moved now.
"That was only the beginning," he said. His voice was fainter now, as though it were
coming from somewhere far away. "We went on down with the main shaft. At seventy-
three hundred feet, we came into a layer filled with artifacts like the Field Museum in
Chicago before the lake got it. Wood, vegetation, planks, pieces of structures, paper,
cloth items. Clothing in vivid colors, furniture, broken dishesтАФand some that weren't
broken. Then we found the man." He stopped, and his face twitched. I waited and he
went on.
"ShortтАФnot over five six, thick in the body, arms like a wrestler. Covered with hairтАФ
like Jumbo; pale, dirty-blond hair, and a face like your bad dreams. Big square teeth, and
he was showing 'em. Thin lips, pulled back. He looked madтАФplenty mad. He was
wearing clothesтАФmostly straps and bits of brass, but well made. And there was a gun in
his handтАФa mean-looking weapon, short, like a riot gun, with a big chamber. We tested
it later. It blew a forty-foot crater in the ice on the shortest burst I could fire. Never did
figure out how it worked.
"It was all pay dirt from then on. More of these ape men, more animals; then we saw
the peak of what we thought was a mountain, rising up from below. It wasn't a mountain.
It was a building. We melted our way down to it, forced a door. There was no ice inside.
We wondered about that; then we decided that snowfalls had buried the buildings; and
the inhabitants had evacuated, set up temporary camps on the top of the snow. But it kept
snowing. In time the weight compressed the snow into clear ice. Probably there was some
tunneling down to the city; we found what looked like old bores, flooded and frozen.
"I was in the advance party that broke into the tower. Terrible odor. Strange-looking
furniture, mostly rotted, rotted rugs and wall hangings, some bonesтАФmen and animals.
And one skeleton of a modern man with a broken skull. We got the idea the Neanderthal
types were slaves. Maybe one of them paid off a grudge.
 "There were plenty of metal and ceramic items aroundтАФnot primitive. We were all
pretty excited. ThenтАФthings started to happen. We heard noises, saw signs that
somebody had been there ahead of us. Then men started disappearing. Found one man
dead, with a hole in him. Hayle called topside for reinforcements. No answer. He figured
the cable was broken. He sent me up with a couple of men to check on things, report what
we'd run into. He was worriedтАФplenty worried.
"At the top, Bachman and the other sailor stepped off. I stayed in the lift to run a test
on the telephone. I got Hayle: he yelled something at me, but I couldn't make it out.
Sounded like shots; then nothing.
"I started out to join the menтАФand it blew. I saw a flash; ice hit me in the face, and
the car started to fall. . . .
"When I came to, I was still in the car, in the dark. It was canted sideways, half full of
pulverized ice. I wasn't hurt muchтАФa few bruises, but my left glove was gone, and my
faceplate.
"I could see a dim glow up above. I went to work on the ice. It was like loose gravel.
Maybe I should have gone down to check on the AdmiralтАФbut I didn't. I got to the
surface the quickest way I could. The car had jammed in the shaft about ten feet down.
There was nothing in sight but ice. No sign of the camp, or of Bachman or the other men.
And no signs of a big quake, either. Just a sort of crater where the tunnel mouth had been.
"It was eight miles to Station Three. My snowcat was gone with the rest. I took a
bearing on the sun and started walking. Made it in just under five hours. Nothing there.
Just a lot of broken ice.
"I took a break, rested, ate part of my suit rations. The coverall was keeping me warm