"Laumer, Keith - Retief 3 - Retief's War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

shouting for way among the thronging Quoppina packing the route. Clear of the main shopping streets,
the Wumblums made better time, wheeling along briskly under the crisp morning sky. Overhead, the
glaring crescent of Joop, Quopp's sister world, swung toward its twice-daily eclipse of the distant sun, a
blinding point of white light casting short midmorning shadows across the intricately surfaced buildings
that thrust up everywhere like giant, lumpy loaves of pastel-toned bread.

"You gents coming back?" Retief's mount inquired in a voice like the E-string on a bass cello. It tilted
an auditory receptor to pick up the reply over the noise of wheels of pavement. "Ten percent off for a

round trip."

"Not right away," Retief said. "Better not wait for us."

"I'll stick around anyway; Voom-Voom's the name. Ask for me when you're ready to go. Not much
action this morning. All these Zilk and Jackoo in town from the villages, they'd wear out their wheels
rubbernecking before they'd hail a rideЧand these Voion cops all over the placeЧthey're not helping
business any."

The Wumblum behind Retief's swung out, came alongside. "Looks like we got company," Big Leon
called, pointing over his shoulder with a large, blunt thumb. Retief glanced back; a pair of Voion were
trailing fifty yards behind, black shells glistening, light winking from their recently applied police insignia.

"There are two more flanking us on the right," Retief said. "I'd guess we're covered on the left, too.
They don't want us to be lonely."

"Maybe you'd better cut out of here," Leon suggested. "I guess they're still mad. Me and the boys'll
handle this."

"It's a nice day for a drive," Retief said. "I wouldn't think of missing it."

The Wumblum took a quick look back at Retief. "Some of those Voion giving you gents trouble?"

"They're trying, I'll concede, Voom-Voom."

"Don't worry about a thing, boss. I'll say a word to my sidekick Rhum-Rhum, and we'll lead those
grub-eaters down a couple of side streets to a cul-de-sac I know and work 'em over for you."

"That's friendly of you, old-timer, but we don't have time for any more horseplay today."

"All part of the service," Voom-Voom said.

The port came into view as the party emerged from the twisting avenue; a hundred acre expanse of
hilly ground ringed by a sagging wire fence, paved and scabbed over with a maze of flimsy temporary
structures, some now nearly a century old, among which the tall shapes of scattered vessels thrust up,
festooned with service cables and personnel rigging. As Retief watched, a vast black shadow swept
down the hillside beyond the ships, rushed across the port blanking out the gleam of sun on chromalloy
and concrete and corrugated aluminum, then enveloped them, plunging the street into abrupt, total
darkness. Retief looked up; the great fire-edged disk of Joop loomed black against the midnight blue
sky. Voom-Voom lowered his head, and the beam of dusty light from his luminescent organ cut a path
through the gloom ahead.