"William Morrison - The Haters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

they could see the small lizard looking up at them. It seemed annoyed that its privacy had been disturbed,
but otherwise not particularly upset. Grayson stared at it more, closely than before. The thing helped him
by standing up on its hind legs so that he could get a better look at it.
The jaws protruded, the forehead receded. It looked like al small-scale, slightly altered edition of the
members of the A-race. "Probably an earlier and smaller form," he thought. "It must have the same
evolutionary relation to the A-race as monkeys have to men."
The thing looked at him and opened its jaws. Grayson heard the thinnest of squeaks. Most of the
sound, he realized, must be in the ultrasonic range.
Another small lizard popped out of a burrow close by; and disregarding the presence of the men a
couple of dozen feet away, the two things held a squeaky conversation. Then both turned and moved
calmly into the second burrow.
"Want me to open that one too?" asked Fernald eagerly.
"Don't bother." Fernald was too anxious. Better keep him under control, or he'd let his passion for
throwing grenades g the better of him.
"I got something a little better than a grenade, Captain," said one of the other men. "Midget-sized
nuclear bomb. We'll have to back up, though, if we want to use it."
"We'll try that," said Grayson.
The man moved cautiously to the burrow and planted the bomb. Then they all moved back. When
the bomb went off, the explosion could be felt a half mile away. Dirt and rocks flew into the air, and with
them the two small lizard things.
When the men approached once more, the two beasts had their heads together again, squeaking
away as before. Apparently they had been unharmed by the explosion.
Grayson looked at his men and they looked back at him, and nobody spoke. Finally, Fernald, now
no longer fingering a grenade, suggested, "There seems to be nothin' much we can do to those things,
Captain. And it would be too bad if they came after us. Maybe we better leave them alone."
"I'm afraid we'd better. Back to the ship, everyone."
He spoke calmly, but inside he wasn't at all calm. He had been right from the first, there was danger
here, terrible danger. So far, by some miracle, the little lizards had shown no inclination to harm them. But
what if the bombing of their burrows had aroused their anger?
The next day he learned that the small lizards were not invulnerable.
They had set a trap a half mile from the ship, and when the alarm went off, Captain Grayson looked
at the visor to see what he had caught. It was a big lizard this time, a member of the A-race. The thing
stood on its hind legs within the smooth hard walls of transparent metal and gazed around it, as if
wondering what had happened. It made no sudden motion, showed no sign of panic. It simply examined
the situation in what seemed to Grayson a very human way.
Something moved at the edge of the visor screen, and Grayson perceived that a small lizard was
inspecting its larger relative through the transparent metal wall. Half a dozen additional small lizards joined
the first, and for a few seconds they stared placidly at the large creature inside the trap.
Then the large one acted. Its paws swiped at the metal wall, and the wall tore. A second later the
large one was out of the trap, attacking the small creatures which surrounded it.
The walls must have caved in completely then, for the visor screen blanked out. Grayson swore in
frustration, and then barked, "McGant, Fernald! Get a couple of men with midget nuclear bombs and
come with me! I want to see what's going on there!"
Two minutes later they were in a 'copter, flying over the place where the broken remains of the trap
lay. McGant looked out and said, "All quiet now, Captain."
"We'll land and look around. You fellows keep your bombs ready for use. They don't seem to hurt
the beasts, but at least they'll blow them out of the way."
As they eased the 'copter off the ground, Grayson sprang out and ran over to what seemed to be a
torn rag. It was what was left of one of the small lizards. He stared at it in disbelief for a moment, aware
that his heart was pounding with fear. He found it hard to believe.