"Andre Norton - Dark Piper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

to give his surroundings a slow, searching stare. Now he gazed as if he saw more than his boots raising
planet dust.
тАЬItтАЩs been a long time,тАЭ he said in a low, tired voice. тАЬA long, long time.тАЭ His shoulders hunched, and
he stooped for the bag he had dropped, but I had it before him.
тАЬWhere away, sir?тАЭ
There were the old barracks. But no one had lived there for at least five years, and they were used for
storage. LugardтАЩs family were all dead or gone. I decided that, whether Annet had room or not, he could
guest with us. But he was looking beyond me to the southwest hills and to the mountains beyond those.
тАЬDo you have a flitter, SimтАФVere?тАЭ He corrected himself. I shook my head. тАЬTheyтАЩre first priority
now, sir. We donтАЩt have parts to repair them all. Best I can do is a hard-duty hopper.
And I knew I was breaking the rules to use that. But Griss Lugard was one of my own, and it had
been a long time since I had had contact with someone from my past.
тАЬSirтАФif you wish to guestтАФтАЭ I continued.
He shook his head. тАЬWhen youтАЩve held to a memory for some timeтАЭтАФit was as if he talked to himself,
almost reassuring himselfтАФтАЬyou want to prove it, right or wrong. If you can get the hopper, point her
west and southтАФto Butte Hold.тАЭ тАЬBut that may be a ruin. No one has been there since Six Squad pulled
out eight years ago.тАЭ
Lugard shrugged. тАЬIтАЩve seen plenty of ruins lately, and I have a fancy for that one.тАЭ With one hand he
fumbled inside his tunic and brought out a palm-sized metal plate that flashed in the afternoon sun.
тАЬGratitude of a government, Vere. I have Butte Hold for as long as I wantтАФas mine.тАЭ
тАЬBut suppliesтАФтАЭ I offered a second discouragement.
тАЬStored there, too. Everything is mine. I paid half a face, strong legs, and quite an additional price for
the Butte, boy. Now IтАЩd like to goтАФhome.тАЭ He was still looking to the hills.
I got the hopper and signed it out as an official trip. Griss Lugard was entitled to that, and I would
face down any objection on that point if I had to. The hoppers had been made originally to explore
rough country. They combined surface travel, where that was possible, with short hops into the air to
cross insurmountably rough terrain. They were not intended for comfort, just to get you there. We
strapped into the foreseats, and I set the course dial for Butte Hold. Nowadays it was necessary to keep
both hands on the controls. There was too apt to be some sudden breakdown, and the automatics were
not to be trusted. Since the war the settlements on Beltane had contracted instead of expanded. With a
short supply of manpower, there had been little or no time wasted in visiting the outlying sites, abandoned
one after another. I remembered Butte Hold as it had been before the warтАФdimly, as seen by a small
boyтАФbut I had not been there for years.
It was set on the borders of the lava country, a treacherous strip of territory that, in remote times,
must have lighted most of this continent with titanic eruptions. Even the eroded evidence of these
volcanoes was still spectacular. Of late years it was an unknown wilderness of breaks and flows, a maze
of knife-sharp ridges with here and there pockets of vegetation. Rumor had it that, beside the forbidding
aspect of the land itself, there were other dangersтАФfrom beasts that had escaped the experimental
stations and found this forsaken range an ideal lair. No one actually had evidence of such. It was rumor
only. But it had grown into tradition, and a man wore a stunner when he ventured in. We left the road at
a turn trace so dim by now that I could not have found it without LugardтАЩs direction. But he gave that
with the surety of one seeing markers plain in the sun. And very shortly we were out of the settled land. I
wanted to talk, but I did not quite dare to ask my questions. Lugard was so plainly occupied with his
thoughts.
He would find other changes on Beltane, less tangible than those of the abandonment of old
landmarks but nonetheless sharp. The settlements had been drained of certain types of men: first the
guard, and then scientists and techneers. Those left had unconsciously, perhaps consciously in some
ways, changed the atmosphere. The war had not come close enough to make any great impression on
our planet. It remained a subject of reports, of attrition of supplies and manpower, of growing irritation as
men, buried in their own chosen fields of research, had been commanded to explore other paths for