"Leinster, Murray - The Mole Pirate v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

'I've only about as long as it takes Durran to get here,' he said unsteadily, 'before I get bumped off. I'm hoping - I'm praying I get Gail dear. Only one chance, and that a thin one. But Durran goes, and I think I go with him.'
'But what are you going to do?' demanded Kennedy desperately. 'What -' Then he stopped.
The Mole, a phantom, was rising out of the ground not a dozen yards away. It came fully into view, and the whitish, eerie light of the force field played upon it, diminishing. As it diminished, the Mole solidified. And as it solidified the screws found the earth in which they worked becoming more and more solid and they slowed and then finally stopped for the increased resistance.
The door opened. The ugly muzzle of a machine gun peered out.
'I've scouted pretty thoroughly,' said the voice of Durran harshly, 'and there's no trap here. I hope you didn't plan to have me bombed from the air, Kennedy. I've got your daughter with me.'
'N-no,' said Kennedy. He swallowed. 'I - I arranged to meet you so I could make terms for her ransom. Can I speak to her?'
A pause.
Durran laughed. 'Why not? Go out, my dear, and talk to him. I can take you back any time I please -'
His voice broke off short. He'd recognized Jack.
'Hello, Durran,' said Jack coolly. 'You didn't like the last bargain I made with you. But it still stands as an offered ransom for Gail.'
Gail stepped out of the Mole, deathly white, and suddenly ran into her father's arms. She sobbed in sheer relief as she dung to him. 'Jack isn't dead!'
'Talk to you later, Gail,' said Jack evenly. 'I'm going to make a bargain for you to stay with your father.'
Durran found his voice again. 'The devil!' he said, shaken. 'I thought you were roasted long ago, Hill! I'll make sure you're dead before I leave this time!'
'Perhaps," said Jack. 'I offered you information, while I was in the Mole, in exchange for Gail's safety. Kill me and you don't get it. It's about - this.'
He took a flat package, about the size of a tobacco tin, out of his pocket. The ugly muzzle of the machine gun swung and covered him accurately.
You're covered,' said Durran. 'What's the trick?'
'You can't dematerialize within a certain distance of one of these contrivances,' said Jack. 'They're being turned out in quantity. The result is that if you materialize anywhere these things have been planted, you can't get away and are subject to attack. I'll trade full information, and come with you to give it, for Gail's release. Maybe you can beat them. I doubt it. But you can work out a detector for them, if you know how they work.'
'That's impossible!' snapped Durran.
'So is the Mole.' submitted Jack. 'You can't dematerialize your ship right now. Isn't the secret of that trick worth Gail's release?'
A pause.
Durran's voice sounded suspidous. 'If it's true. That might be a bomb, though. You stay where you are. I'm going to test it out. This machine gun stays trained on you. I turn on the force field. If you lie, I can materialize again fast enough to kill you.'
'But you can't dematerialize,' said Jack. He smiled faintly. 'You're inside the range of this thing.'
Only a grunt came from inside the Mole. Something rumbled within. The sustaining screws stirred. Instantly the ship flashed into the state of co-ordinated atoms, they would whir swiftly, looking like the most tenuous of froth but sustaining the whole weight of the earth-ship.
'If you dare move,5 said Durran harshly, 'I'll kill all three of you!'
Then the Mole flared with eerie, whitish light. It became a phantom.
And it dropped with a headlong swiftness at one and the same instant. One instant there was the Mole, all solid, riveted, bullet-scarred plates of steel. Next instant there was a glowing outline which fell as it glowed. Then there was nothing. No phantom. No outline. Nothing.
Jack smiled very, very faintly. 'I think,' he said softly, 'that's that!'
Gail stared at him. 'Jack! Where's the Mole?
Jack said rather grimly: 'The thorium plating on the sustaining screws has been wearing thin. So this morning I had a plane fly low over this place Durran had appointed. It dusted all the top of the ground with crystals of phosphoric acid. There's been rain lately, and the ground is moist. The acid made a strong solution in all the top soil. And the Mole came swimming through that soil. As long as it was de-materialized, of course, the acid did nothing. But when the Mole materialized, the phosphoric acid dissolved off the remaining thin plating of thorium from the screws. And I persuaded Durran to dematerialize - and there was nothing to hold the ship up. It fell through earth and stone. It's still falling. We'll never see Durran again.'
Gail said, absurdly: 'Jack! The Mole you built! It's gone!'
'Yes,' said Jack. 'And I expected to be in it. I was sure Durran would make me come in, but he was afraid that "contrivance" was a bomb. It was, and I've another in my pocket. With you outside of the Mole and me inside with two bombs - I told your father Durran would go. He - had to be finished.'
But he looked rather sick. The Mole would still be falling - toward those smouldering internal fires to which Durran had doomed him once.
Then, quite suddenly, the ground trembled. A distant, muted, racking sound came from far, far underground. It ceased.
'That - that ends it,' said Jack. 'Durran knew what he was falling to. He was clever. He probably even figured out what I did. So be blew up the ship rather than wait. I'm rather glad of that.'
Silence! Little rustling noises of leaves and grass in the wind.
Then Kennedy said fiercely: 'That's done with, then! Durran's finished! And we'll get back to work! You, Jack, you'll be needed to explain that earth-plane idea. We'll have under-ocean passenger service to Europe within a year. We'll have fleets of earth-planes moving through solidity, safer than aeroplanes or ships could be. And we'll be mining ten and twenty miles deep with those mine cages you talked about -'
But Gail let go of her father's hands. She walked over to Jack and into his arms.
'My father thinks you've made good, Jack,' she told him. 'Now, you tell him there's something very important to be attended to before you do any more work on those nasty earth-ships!'
Jack pressed her close.
'Yes; there is. Do you mind attending a wedding this afternoon, sir?' he asked Kennedy.
'Not at all,' replied Kennedy with a grimace. 'You two stay here a moment while I get those State police. Watch these bags, if you can. The ransom for New York is in them. It's got to be taken back.'