"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 19 - Looters of Tharn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

Blade grasped the leg-control lever and wiggled it gently. it would not go forward or sideways. Even
more gently he pulled it back. A shudder ran through the machine and the grating of badly lubricated
metal echoed in the control cabin. The machine shuddered again, then lurched upward with clanking and
clashing noises as the legs extended themselves. The machine settled down again as the legs bent. Then it
rose and fell in a steady, slightly wobbling rhythm as the legs settled down to "walking" across the plain.

Blade took his hand off the lever. It made no difference to the steady gait of the metal legs. He leaned
forward, found the switches to activate the screens, and turned them on. The screen overlooking the view
of the city showed the smoke billowing still thicker and still higher, and the other two war machines still
standing motionless. So far no one seemed to have noticed that the third war machine was walking off on
its own. Blade suspected that he had better be ready to leave in a hurry when somebody did notice it.

Blade pulled the lever farther back. The speed of the legs increased, and so did the shuddering of the
machine. It began to corkscrew around both axes at once. Blade pushed the lever forward. Obviously
the machine couldn't walk too fast without risk of something vital shaking loose.

The legs slowed. Blade looked at the screens again. It seemed that the whole city must be aflame now,
although Blade found it hard to believe there could be that much left to burn in the long-deserted
buildings. The noise must be terrific, but none of it got through the hull of the war machine. It was like
watching a particularly eerie silent movie.

Then Blade saw something gleaming and metallic flash near the base of one of the nearer towers. He
watched more closely, not sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.

They weren't. Something large and metallic was moving slowly out of the city toward the open plain.
Blade kept his eyes on the screen. What was emerging looked like an enormous slab-sided box with a
large square turret on top. Blade could see no other signs of weapons, tentacles, or legs. But to loom so
large at this distance, the new arrival must be three or four times the size of the war machine.

One thing was certain. It was time for Blade to try operating the antigravity and find out just how high
and fast this war machine would go. He didn't want to have to learn with somebody shooting at him.

He bent forward, and one long arm reached out to the lever under the large dial to the right of the
control column. It was at the bottom of its slot. Blade took a firm grip on it and pushed it upward.

Instantly a new humming and vibration filled the cabin. Then a light over the large dial on the left side, the
power dial, lit up. The machine seemed to heave itself upward, then sag down again onto its legs.
Somewhere a warning signal sounded with a fast, angry beep-beep-beep-beeeeeee that swiftly rose to
an ear-torturing screech.

Blade pulled the lever back down. Instantly the signal died away and the light over the main power dial
went dark. Blade flicked his eyes across the control panel, then relaxed. What he had done wrong was
almost childishly simple. He hadn't realized that lifting the machine on its antigravity might take more
power than walking it on its legs.

He reached for the main power control and slowly opened it until about two-thirds of the dial above
glowed blue. Then he grasped the lift control a second time and pushed it upward.

Again the war machine heaved itself upward. But this time it went on rising slowly. On the screens Blade
saw the ground slowly dropping away and the dark smashed-down trail the machine left in the grass