"Lumley, Brian - E-Branch 3 - Avengers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

'I'm not q-q-qualified.' The man wiped blood from his face, his hand trembling violently. 'But y-y-yes, I think so.'

'Excellent,' said Malinari. 'The purser thought so, too. So if you'd told me otherwise . . . well, that would have gone quite badly for you. So perhaps you'll now consult the charts, find a suitable rock, and dock us?'

'A rock?'The man looked this way and that. 'Dock us?'

'Wreck us,' Malinari nodded. 'Bring us up aground.'

'But first he must see us under way again,' said Vavara, as she entered the room. Seeing her in close proximity, the radio operator shrank back more yet.

'So then, things to do,' Malinari told him. 'You have your orders. But try not to fail me, or I may put you over the side where you will be drawn into the propellers. And whatever else you do, do not think to disobey me. That would prove even more . . . unfortunate.'

Hooking the man under the chin, Vavara drew him upright and let him see the gape of her jaws and smell her breath. And, 'Very well, then.' She glared at him. 'Is all understood?'

He couldn't speak, and so simply nodded his head.


20


Releasing him, she turned to Malinari. 'I think I hear running footsteps. Are they coming to their senses, do you think?'

He shrugged. 'Very possibly. As you'll recall, the Captain was on the phone speaking to someone when we broke in. Also, I killed a steward and hurled him down a deck. That should definitely have alerted them to the fact that something is amiss.'

'Then perhaps it's time we introduced ourselves,' she said. 'To the rest of the crew, and then to the passengers.'

'Aye,' Malinari agreed. 'To all of them eventually. Myself, I am sorely in need of refreshment, and I've heard the cuisine aboard these pleasure cruisers is superb.'

'Cuisine?' She laughed throatily. 'Then you shall have your choice. What's your preference, blonde or brunette?'

'Redhead, I think.' Malinari leered. 'There are bound to be a few among the fourteen hundred on board. But first there's an arms locker we should see to -just a few small arms - in the purser's cabin on the main deck. We should heave that overboard, I think. Our leeches have work enough with all our burns, without that they're overtaxed healing bullet holes, too!'

'I agree,' she answered. 'As for the rest - the passengers and crew - it won't be long before they discover that the only safe places are on the open decks, out in the sunlight.'

'Safe while it lasts,' Malinari nodded thoughfully. 'And at least until tonight. By which time - if we're assiduous in our work - we shall have a good many thralls to instruct, vampires in the making.'

As they left the radio room and made for the shattered door to the bridge deck, the radio operator came staggering in their wake. Malinari glanced at him, reminding him, 'Now don't let us down, will you? If in five minutes' time this ship isn't making headway, I'll know where to come looking for an answer. Oh, and as for that rock I mentioned: the Aegean has plenty of them, as I'm sure you're aware. So find one on your charts - the nearest one will do - and take us to it.'

He pointed at the telephone dangling over a varnished spoke of the wooden wheel where the Captain had let it fall. A second spoke supported the First Mate's limp body; it was sunk deep in the socket of his right eye, having got stuck in his skull when Vavara had slammed him face down onto it. Hanging there like a wet towel, his blood had pooled around his knees and was still spreading.

But the phone was squawking like a tiny strangled chicken, making shrill enquiries. And: 'Carry on, then.' Malinari pushed the radio operator forward. 'Do something - speak to whoever it is - tell lies and live. But remember, if you intend to survive this, don't do or say anything too rash.'


21


And with a final monstrous smile, he followed after Vavara, out through the door and into hell.

Hell for the passengers and crew of the Evening Star, but to the Wamphyri a way of life and of undeath that they had kept mainly suppressed for far too long . . .