"Andre Norton - The X Factor 2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

the sounds of merriment more muffled here than in the garden. And this chamber
was less alien in its appointments than any other in the huge palace dwelling.
The rich fabrics at the window were native, but their colors were not so muted
here. They were warmer. And save for one lacy spiral object on the wide
desk-table, there were none of the fragile native ornaments. The rack of
travel disks might have been taken out of a spacerтАФperhaps it had been. He
studied that rack, his lips shaping numbers as he counted the disks, each in
its own slot. More than a hundred worldsтАФkeys to more than a hundred
worldsтАФall visited at some time or another by Renfry Fentress. And any one of
those, fitted into the auto-pilot of a spacer could take a man to that
world-Blue tapes firstтАФworlds explored by Fentress, now open for
colonizationтАФten of those, a record of which to be proud. Yellow disksтАФworlds
that would not support human life. GreenтАФinhabited by native races, open for
trade, closed to human settlement. RedтАФDiskan eyed the red. There were three
of those at the bottom of the case. Red meant unknownтАФworlds on which only one
landing had been made, reported, but not yet checked out fully as useful or
otherwise. Empty of intelligent life, yes, possible for human life as to
climate and atmosphere, but planets that posed some kind of puzzle. What could
such puzzles be, Diskan speculated, for a moment pulled from his own concerns
to wonder. Any one of a hundred reasons could mark a world redтАФto await
further exploration. Keys to worldsтАФsuppose one could use one? Diskan's hands
dropped again to his knees, but his ringers crooked a little. That thinking,
which was clear until he tried to translate it into action, picked at him. A
blue worldтАФanother Nyborg or Vaanchard. A green-no, he had no desire to face
another alien race, and his landing on such a planet would be marked at once.
Yellow, that was death, escape of a sort, but he was too young and still not
desperate enough to think seriously of that final door. But those three redтАФ
His tongue crossed his lips. For a long while he had drawn into himself,
refused to initiate action that always ended in failure for him. There was a
key to be used only by a very reckless man, one who had nothing to lose.
Diskan Fentress could be considered as such. He could never be content on
Vaanchard. All he asked or wanted was what they would not grant himтАФsolitude
and freedom from all they were and he could not be. But could he do it? There
was the tape, and outside this house, not too far away, was the port. On that
landing space were berthed small, fast spacers. For once his background would
be an asset. Who would believe that the stupid off-worlder would contemplate
stealing a ship when he had no pilot training, when the control quarters of a
small ship would be so cramped for his hulking body? It was a stupid plan, but
he was stupid. Diskan did not get to his feet. Intent even now on making no
sound, no move that might betray him, on all fours like the animal he believed
he was, he reached the tape rack. His big hand hovered over the three red
disks. Which? Not that it mattered. His fingers closed about the middle one,
transferred it to a belt pocketтАФbut that left an easily noticeable gap. Diskan
made a second shift at the rack; now that gap was at the end of the row, in
the shadow. If he had any luck at all, it might not be noticed for some time.
He was rising when he heard it, the click of the door latch. Two steps would
carry him to cover. Dared he take them? But again, for once, body and brain
worked together. He did not stumble over his own feet, lurch against the table
to send the ornament crashing, or make any other mistake; he got safely behind
the window curtains before the door opened. NOTHWITHSTANDING the half light,