"Lumley, Brian - E-Branch 3 - Avengers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)her forehead had wrinkled into a deep frown of intense concentration. Taking one hand from the safety rail, she lightly touched her fingertips to her temple forward of her right ear -And in the next moment gasped and jerked back on her line as if she had been physically thrust backwards, rebounding when the nylon safety line reached full stretch! Trask caught her arm - Chung, too - as she steadied herself and made a wild grab for the safety bar with her free hand. She couldn't have fallen, anyway, but some kind of temporary disorientation had completely thrown her. And: 'Liz?' Trask said again, no longer her superior but more an anxious father figure now as he continued to support her. 'Are you okay?' She took a deep breath and tried a wan smile, but under her tan she was visibly paler, as if the blood had drained from her face. Argyle, believing he knew what this was, said, 'It's just motion sickness, very much akin to seasickness. I see plenty of it. She's not used to the rhythm of the chopper, that's all.' Trask barely glanced at him, then spoke to Liz again. 'What was it? What did you get?' 'People,' she answered. 'Hundreds of them - men, women, and children - all of them in shock, not knowing what's happened to them but knowing enough not to come out on the decks in the sunlight. It'll be "instinctive" by now; the filthy stuff in their blood will have done it to them. And the terrible craving: it's already there!' She offered a small, involuntary shudder. 'It's horrible, Ben . . . it makes your skin crawl! In the last twenty-four hours they've all of them infected each other. Now they're hungry again. Soon they'll separate into factions, and then . . . and then . . .' 'I know,' said Trask. 'I know. A mini-bloodwar!' And Argyle said, 'Hungry? People on the ship? But you can't possibly know that! And, anyway, you must be wrong. This is a big pleasure cruiser and the galley will be full of excellent food. It's only been a few days, and if there's still anyone alive on that vessel they'll= '-Most of them will still be "alive",' Trask told him. 'If not as we understand life. And yes, they'd be perfectly capable of surviving on the ship's food . . . except theyll be driven to go for something more to their liking.' Most of this had flown right over Argyle's head. 'Not as we understand life?' He frowned. 'I'm not sure I understand any of what youre saying! You can only mean they're incurable, better off dead.' 'Something like that,' Trask answered after a moment, sighing his resignation. 28 'But-' The Commander was plainly confused, very uncertain now, and feeling well out of his depth. '-But I want to get in a whole lot closer,' Trask told him yet again. 'And I do intend to look inside.' He tapped a fingernail on a pair of binoculars slung around his neck. 'Those huge panoramic windows in the bridge will do nicely.' Standing in line, hooked up in their safety harnesses, from left to right the five were Argyle, Trask, Liz, Chung, and last but not least the tall, pale, almost cadaverous figure of a man called Ian Goodly. Now the latter spoke up. 'We'll have to sink her, Ben. According to the charts, this rock is only the tip of a steep-sided submarine mountain. If we were to send her to the bottom here, the abyss would finish it for us. In fact there is no "if" or "were" or "would" about it. Though I hate to have to say it, that's how it's going to be: the only way we can ensure that nothing of this ever, er, resurfaces.' 'You've seen it?' Trask said, sharply. 'Oh, yes,' said the other. 'The ship-to-ship missiles going in, the explosions, the stem going up in the air, and the rapid slide backwards off those rocks.' 'Sink her!?' Now Argyle exploded. Finally he had had enough of this gobbledegook. 'What? You're talking about Invincible having to sink her? You must be out of your tiny minds, you people! This is an ultra-modern pleasure cruiser and even her lifeboats are worth millions! Just looking at her I'm sure she can be refloated, then sailed or towed away - that is, of course, after we've made sure she's clean. But even if she's too badly holed, still the salvage contract alone would be worth '-Nothing,' said Trask. 'Nothing is coming off that ship.' 'You are fucking crazy!' Argyle exploded again. 'And if you don't mind, next time I start a sentence I'd like to be able to finish it! I'm getting heartily sick of-' 'Commander?' the pilot's voice sounded in his headphones. 'Oh! . . . bloody hell! . . . Yes?' Argyle snapped, still glowering his fury at the four. |
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