"Brian Lumley - E-Branch 2 - Invaders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

'Well, good/ said Liz. 'It's my favourite, too.' Jake watched them go inside, frowned at the
nozzle in his hand. Just like that, he'd accepted the bloody thing. Damn!
After that ... but it seemed it was going to take forever to satisfy the 'Rover's greedy guzzling.
So Jake quit when the tank was only three-quarters full, slammed the nozzle into the pump's
housing, tried not to look too concerned as he followed Liz and the old boy into the shack. But
he'd hated to lose contact with her, lose sight of her like that, even for a few seconds. And
she'd looked back at him just before she passed from view, her green eyes a fraction too narrow,
too anxious.
Inside, however, it wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would be. Or as it might have been.
It was the grime, the blown dust of the desert, clinging to the outside of the windows, that had
shut the light in and made the place seem so dim from outside. But within - this might be typical
of any outback filling station a million miles from nowhere. That was Jake's first impression. The
bar was a plank on two barrels, with a bead curtain hanging from the plank to the floor in front,


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and smaller barrels for seats. Liz was perched on one of them, and the old man had passed her a
beer that she held unopened in her hand.
She must have asked him if he was all alone out here, and he was in the process of answering:
'Alone? Me? Naw, not much. And anyway I enjoys bein' on me ownsome. Oh, I got a couple o' boys to
'elp out. They ain't 'ere right now, is all. It ain't so bad, actu'ly. 'Ad a truck through just a
day or so ago.'
'A truck?' Liz said, all innocence and light. 'Out here?' And the old man nodded. 'Gawd knows
where they'd be goin'! But for that matter, where be you goin', eh? What're yer doin' out 'ere
anyway?'
Having taken in much of the single room at a glance, Jake strode to the bar and asked for a beer.
Without waiting for an answer from Liz, the old man reached for a bottle and turned to Jake. 'Well
now, you was a mite quick!' he said. 'Yer just topped 'er up, am I right? I mean, yer'd never fill
a big tank as quick as that/

'Right/ said Jake, accepting the beer. He gave the bottle a quick shake, forced the top off with a
practised thumb. Then, changing the subject as the warm beer foamed, 'No cans?' he inquired. He
passed the bottle to Liz, took hers and repeated his trick, with the same result. The beer wasn't
flat; these bottles were old stock, but they hadn't been opened previously.
And meanwhile: 'Cans? I don't hold with 'em/ the oldster told him. 'All this newfangled shite! But
yer can trust a bottle/ And turning to Liz again, 'You were sayin'?'
'No/ she answered, 'you were saying. You asked what we're doing out here/
'Well then?' he pressed.
She smiled. 'Can you keep a secret?'
He shrugged his hunched shoulders, sat down on a barrel on his side of the plank and chuckled.
'And who do yer reckon I'd be tellin'?'
Liz nodded. 'We were visiting kin in Wiluna, decided to get married sort of quick. So here we are,
run off where no one can find us/
'Eh? Honeymooners, yer say? Run off on yer ownsome and left no forwardin' address? All out o'
touch, secret an' private in the Gibson Desert? Huh! Hell o' a place fer a honeymoon .. /
'I told him the very same thing/ Liz nodded her agreement, shaking an I-told-you-so finger at
Jake.
And Jake said, 'Anyway, we're headed north. We thought we'd take a look at the lakes, and-'