"Keith Laumer - Bolos 6 - Cold Steel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

jabbed it at her. She cursed and jumped back, feeling the dull impact of the weapon against her
side, just below the rib cage.
She cursed again, more angry than afraid. Her side hurt, and without thinking she touched
herself, feeling something hot and wet on her fingers. She looked at her bloody fingers in shock.
"You cut me, you bastards!"
The alien watched her intently, still utterly unreadable to her. Then it made a noise, a hissy,
rasping noise, punctuated by clicks of those hard lips. It was talking.
The others joined in, all chattering at once.
She knew without a doubt she was going to have to make a break for it, and while they were
talking seemed as good a time as any. She just hoped the others up in the grinder control cabin
could see what was happening out here and have the door open when she came up the ladder.
She bolted, skittering back down the slope toward the waiting ladder. After twenty steps, she
dared to glance back, and was surprised to see that the aliens weren't following. Instead, the big
one had lowered his bag to the ground, and the others gathered around as he opened it and pulled
out a large, cylindrical object made of metal. She had no idea what the object was, only that it
clearly hadn't been made by a bunch of savages in loincloths. She stopped and clutched her
injured side, trying to figure out what they were doing.
The big creature hoisted the cylinder up onto his shoulder, one eye pressing awkwardly
against a rearward-facing eyepiece that seemed totally out of position for its anatomy. Then he
turned toward the pulverizer. The other natives chattered excitedly.
If she didn't know any better, she'd think it was some kind of energy weapon. But that
couldn't be. The rest of these creatures looked primitive, and none of them were carrying
anything but swords and knives. Maybe they'd just found the weapon somehow, didn't even know
what it did. Maybe they just wanted to see the pretty colors in the sighting system.
"Hey!" she shouted, stepping back slowly. "Don't be aiming that thing at my machine!"
The small alien barked something. From the tone, it might have been an expletive, then
started moving towards her, stafflike sword raised. The big one snapped something else at the
little one, but was ignored.
The large alien again lifted the energy weapon. For a moment she hesitated between running
and trying to watch. Then it was decided for her. The flash nearly blinded her.
She felt the shock wave in her rib cage and staggered back. It was a plasma cannon.
The small alien paused, looking, as she was, at the pulverizer.
The cannon had been powerful, but the big mining machine was built to take punishmentтАФ
Then she saw the smoke coming from the emitters over the sonic cannon. They'd taken out the
active noise cancellation. She felt it first through her feet, like a pipe organ hitting a low note,
building in intensity. Instinctively she covered her ears, knowing how little good it would do. The
pulverizer was shaking now, ripples running through its metal sides. Shut down, shut down! What
was wrong with her crew?
Then she saw someone on one of the catwalks near the control room. She squinted against the
sky. Not one of her people. Another alien, and it carried something in one hand. It tossed the
object down to the others. It was round. It bounced in the sand and rolled to a stop at the big one's
taloned feet.
It was a head. She caught a glimpse of Vanderhaven's blonde hair, and felt her last meal
fighting to come back up.
Then the sound came, full blown, like needles in her eardrums, distracting her even from the
horror of what she had just seen. She fell to her knees in pain.
The pulverizer was tearing itself apart from the inside, shedding hull plating and external
fittings in a gentle rain as it continued its blind way down the valley. The aliens watched,
seemingly unbothered by the sound. The big one raised the weapon again, aiming at the
midsection where the power core now stood revealed by peeling hull. She couldn't believe they