"13 Sentinels 01 - The Devils Hand" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

Elsewhere, Jonathan Wolff was zeroing in on Minmei.
"This has got to be the biggest reception I've ever played," Minmei was exclaiming to Janice as Wolff came over.
"You sang beautifully," he began on a confident note.
Minmei recognized a certain look in his eye and began to glance around for an escape route. "Uh, thank you," she said in a distracted way.
"The name's Wolff. And do you know how long I've wanted to meet you?"
Wolff! Oh, terrific, Minmei was saying to herself, when Janice suddenly blurted out, "Try humming a few bars."
Wolff's smile collapsed and he began to look back and forth between the two women uncertainly. "I, uh-"
"Oh, right, you were talking to Minmei, not me," Janice said. "Look, I'll relocate and you can give it a second try."
Minmei and Wolff watched her walk off.
"Don't mind Janice, she's got a very peculiar sense of humor."
Wolff cleared his throat meaningfully and was about to say something, but Minmei excused herself and wandered away.
"There's someone over there I want to talk to," she said over her shoulder.
Undaunted, Wolff straightened his torso harness-in case anyone was watching. He saw Minmei talking to Exedore and three other Zentraedi men. But then Wolff noticed something else: a man about his own age standing nearby was also watching Minmei. Watching her with an almost palpable intensity. Wolff repositioned himself for a better view of the stranger, a maintenance tech by the look of his uniform. But there was something disturbingly familiar about him. Wolff was sure he had never met the man, but was equally certain he had seen him somewhere. As he studied the man's tall, lean figure and bearded face, an image began to form. The beard would have to go, Wolff decided, and the hair would have to be a lot longer and darker...But where had he seen him-in the Control Zone, maybe-and why did martial arts and old movies come to mind?

Karen Penn, her father, and Dr. Lang were eating slices of wedding cake when a slovenly-dressed civilian joined them at the table. Lang introduced Karen to Dr. Lazlo Zand, a cold-handed man with eyes as pupilless as Lang's own.
"Good to meet you," Karen said, forcing a smile and wondering if Zand ran on ice water.
"Charmed," he returned. "That blond hair. You remind me of little Dana."
Karen felt a chill run through her, and something seemed to make her fork leap from the plate. She bent to retrieve it, but someone had beat her to it.
"Allow me," a red-haired ensign told her. "I'm pretty handy with hardware."
"Karen, Ensign...Baker, if I'm not mistaken," offered Lang.
She and Baker were both still holding on to the fork and locked in on each other's eyes.
"The pleasure's at least fifty percent mine." Baker smiled. He let go of the fork. "Consider me at your service, ma'am."
Karen's eyebrows went up. "I'll keep it in mind."
"And I'll keep you in mind," Baker said, excusing himself and moving off.
"Bit of a hotshot," commented Lang.
"That's the sort of person you'll be wasting your time with from now on," Harry Penn added gruffly.
Karen smiled. "I'm not so sure about that, Dad."
"But your father's right," Zand interjected, narrowing his eyes. "Scientists are more fun."
Karen couldn't hold the man's gaze. Absently, she tried to raise a forkful of cake to her mouth. The utensil was twisted beyond recognition.

The party was still cooking eight hours later, but Rick and Lisa were ready to call it a day. They said their farewells from the balcony overlooking the hold; and Lisa got ready to give the bridal bouquet a healthy send-off.
At the last minute, Janice had thrust Minmei into the midst of the crowd of eligible women, but had herself taken off for parts unknown. Now Minmei was pressed tight in the center of that mass of supercharged youth, surrounded by officers, enlisted-rating techs, and cadets, most of whom were younger than she was. One honey-blond-haired ensign to her left couldn't have been more than seventeen.
On the balcony, Lisa was warning that anyone who hoped to remain single should stay out of the line of fire. Then she gave the thing a windup underhanded toss, and Minmei saw it coming.
She barely had to stretch out her hands, and what was stranger still, the women around her seemed to give it to her.
"See you all after the honeymoon," Lisa shouted, perhaps unaware of the bouquet's landing zone.
"Yeah, in about eight hours from now!" Rick added, tugging his bride away.
Minmei lowered her face into the flowers, then gave her head a quick shake when she looked up. It's over, she thought, recalling a sad song she used to sing. Now I've got to get on with my life.
"Good-bye, Rick," she said softly. It is you I still see...

On Optera, the Invid Regis learned of her husband's imminent return and made immediate plans to leave the planet. She didn't delude herself with thoughts that this might be some trial separation. Of course, it meant abandoning all the Genesis Pit experiments in evolution she had begun here, her progress in the Great Work of transmutation and freedom from the base condition; but what strides could she hope to make in his presence, what chance did she have to fulfill herself? No, he had held her back long enough. Further, it meant that she would have to decide what constituted a just division of their resources. He already had the living computer; but there were other Protoculture instrumentalities that would serve her as well as the brain once had. And she would take along half her active children, but leave him that sleeping brood she had not yet seen fit to awaken.
Their home on Optera, their castle, was an enormous hemispherical hive, once the sacred inverted chalice of the Great Work, but now a profane dwelling filled with his things-his servants and ridiculous possessions. He had claimed to be doing all this for her sake, and for a time she could almost believe him, pitiful as his attempts were. But she soon realized that he was merely nurturing himself with these conquests and acquisitive drives.
The Regent's ignorance and stubbornness had been enough to drive her mad. He was in every way her intellectual and spiritual inferior; and yet his will was powerful, and in his presence she could feel his sick mind reaching out for her, trying to smother her. She was certain that unless she left Optera, he would one day succeed in dragging her down to his barbaric level.
But she was free of him now, her mind clear on the path she had to take. No longer subservient to his dark demands, she would strike out on her own. If the matrix was to be found, it was she who would find it. Not by sanitizing the Masters' insignificant worlds, but by sending out her sensor nebulae to the far reaches of the galaxy to locate Zor's dimensional fortress. Then she would take the Flowers back from the thieves who had stolen them; she would liberate them from their matrix prison and find a new Optera for her experiments! In the meantime the planet Praxis would suffice. And woe to any who would stand in her way!


CHAPTER SIX
Actually, I've been thinking about it for months now, but I just didn't know how to ask, and I wasn't sure if you would understand my decision. Could you see me walking up to Lang or one of those council stiffs and saying, "Uh, do you think I might be able to go along on the ride?" And then have to tell you that I was going to be doing a tour by myself this time. Taking my act to Tirol-you would have brained me. I hope you'll forgive me, and l want you to know that we'll pick up right where we left off when the Expeditionary mission returns. I mean, who knows, maybe I'll have added a bunch of new stuff to our repetoire. Anyway I'm certain the experience will be good for me.
Lynn-Minmei's good-bye note to her manager, Samson "Sharky" O'Toole