"Andre Norton - Ross Murdock 04 - Key Out Of Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

of."
"Suppose"--Ross rolled over on his stomach, pillowed his head on his
arms--"we could uncover some of that knowledge--"
The twitch was back at Ashe's lips. "That's the risk we have to run now."
"Risk?"
"Would you give a child one of those hand weapons we found in the derelict?"
"Certainly not!" Ross snapped, then saw the point. "You mean--we aren't to
be trusted?"
The answer was plain to read in Ashe's expression.
"Then why this whole setup, this hunt for what might mean trouble?"
"The old pinch, the bad one. What if the Russians discover something first?
They drew some planets in the tape lottery, remember. It's a seesaw between
us--we advance here, they there. We have to keep up the race or lose it.
They must be combing their stellar colonies for a few answers just as
furiously as we are."
"So, we go into the past to hunt if we have to. Well, I think I could do
without answers such as the Baldies would know. But I will admit that I
would like to know what did happen here--two, five, ten thousand years ago."
Ashe stood up and stretched. For the first time he smiled. "Do you know, I
rather like the idea of fishing off Karara's beckoning finger. Maybe she's
right about that changing our luck."
Ross kept his face carefully expressionless as he got up to prepare their
evening meal.

2
Lair of Mano-Nui
Just under the surface of the water the sea was warm, weird life showed
colors Ross could name, shades he could not. The corals, the animals
masquerading as plants, the plants disguised as animals which inhabited the
oceans of Earth, had their counterparts here. And the settlers had given
them the familiar names, though the crabs, the fish, the anemones, and weeds
of the shallow lagoons and reefs were not identical with terrestrial
creatures. There was just too much here, too much teeming life to attract
one's eyes and divert one's attention. It was hard to keep focused on the
job at hand--the search for what was not natural, for what had no normal
place here. As the land seduced the senses and bewitched the offworlder, so
did the sea have its enchantment to pull one from duty. Ross resolutely
skimmed by a forest of swaying lace which varied from a green which was
-almost black to a pale tint he could not truly identify. Among those waving
fans lurked ghost-fish, finned swimmers -transparent enough so that one
could see, through their pallid sides, the evidences of recently ingested
meals. The humans had begun their sweep-search a half hour ago, slipping
overboard from a ferry canoe, heading in toward the checkpoint of the finger
isle. They formed an arc of expert divers, men and girls so at home in the
ocean that they should be able to make the discovery Ashe needed--if such
did exist. Mystery built upon mystery on Hawaika, Ross thought as he used
his spear-gun to push aside a floating banner of weed in order to peer below
its curtain. The native life of this world must always have been largely
aquatic. The settlers had discovered only a few small animals on the
islands. The largest of these was the burrower, a creature not unlike a