"George R. R. Martin - Override" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

Then they began to pass through the caves.
There were hundreds of them, literally, and they honeycombed the mountains that circled the
settlement on all sides. The caves had never been mapped thoroughly. There were far too many of them,
and they all seemed to connect with each other, forming a natural maze of incredible complexity. Most of
them were still half-full of water; they'd been carved from the soft mountain rock by the streams and
rivers that still ran through them.
A stranger could easily get lost in the caves, but strangers never came there. And the corpse handlers
never got lost. This was their country. This was where the swirlstones waited, cloaked in rock and
darkness.
The launches were all equipped with lights. Kabaraijian switched his on as soon as they hit the first
cave, and slowed. Cochran, following close behind, did likewise. The channels that ran through the
nearer caves were well-known, but shallow, and it didn't pay to risk tearing out the bottom of your boat.
The channel was narrow at first, and the glistening, damp walls of soft greenish stone seemed to press
in on them from either side. But gradually the walls moved farther and farther back, finally peeling away
entirely as the stream carried the two launches into a great vaulted underground chamber. The cavern
was as big as a spaceport, its ceiling lost in the gloom overhead. Before long the walls vanished into the
dark too, and the launches traveled in two small bubbles of light across the gently-stirring surface of a
cold black lake.
Then, ahead of them, the walls took form again. But this time, instead of one passage, there were
many. The stream had carved one entrance, but a good half-dozen exits.
Kabaraijian knew the cave, however. Without hesitating, he guided his boat into the widest passage,
on the extreme right. Cochran followed in his wake. Here the waters flowed down an incline, and the
boats began to pick up speed again. "Be careful," Kabaraijian warned Cochran at one point. "The ceiling
comes down here." Cochran acknowledged the shout with a wave of his hand.
The warning came barely in time. While the walls were increasingly farther apart, the stone roof
above them was moving steadily closer, giving the illusion that the waters were rising. Kabaraijian
remembered the way he'd sweated the first time he'd taken this passage; the boat had been going too
fast, and he'd feared getting pinched in by the ceiling, and overwhelmed by the climbing waters.
But it was an idle fear. The roof sank close enough to scrape their heads, but no closer. And then it
began to rise again to a decent height. Meanwhile, the channel widened still more, and soft sand shelves
appeared along either wall.
Finally there was a branching in the passage, and this time Kabaraijian chose the left-hand way. It
was small and dark and narrow, with barely enough room for the launch to squeeze through. But it was
also short, and after a brief journey, it released them to a second great cavern.
They moved across the chamber quickly, and entered its twin under a grotesque stone arch. Then
came yet another twisting passage, and more forks and turns. Kabaraijian led them calmly, hardly
thinking, hardly having to think. These were his caves; this particular section of undermountain was his
domain, where he'd worked and mined for months. He knew where he was going. And finally he got
there. The chamber was big, and haunting. Far above the shallow waters, the roof had been eaten
through by erosion, and light poured in from three great gashes in the rock. It gave the cavern a dim
greenish glow, as it bounced off the pale green walls and the wide, shallow pool.
The launches spilled from a thin crack in the cave wall, carried by rushes of cold black water. The
water turned green when it hit the light, and tumbled and warmed and slowed. The boats slowed, too,
and moved leisurely across the huge chamber toward the white sand beaches that lined the sides.
Kabaraijian pulled up by one such beach, and hopped out into the shallow water, dragging his launch
up onto the sand. Cochran followed his example, and they stood side by side when both boats were
safely beached.
"Yeah," said Cochran, looking around. "It's nice. And it figures. Leave it to you to find a pretty place
to work, while the rest of us are up to our ankles in water, clutching lights."
Kabaraijian smiled. "I found it yesterday," he said. "Completely unworked. Look." He pointed at the