"Phillip Francis Nowlan - Buck Rogers 01 - Armageddon 2419" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nowlan Philip Francis)

"You want to report by phone then, don't you?" Alan took a compact packet about six inches
square from a holster attached to her belt and handed it to Wilma. So far as I could see, it had no
special receiver for the
ear. Wilma merely threw back a lid, as though she were opening a book, and began to talk. The voice
that came back from the machine was as audible as her own.
She was queried closely as to the attack upon her, and at considerable length as to myself, and I
could tell from the tone of that voice that its owner was not prepared to take me at my face value as
readily as Wilma had. For that matter, neither was the other girl. I could realize it from the
suspicious glances she threw my way, when she thought my attention was elsewhere, and, the
manner ia which her hand hovered constantly near her gun hoister.
Wilma was ordered to bring me in at once, and informed that another scout would take her place on the
other side of the mountain. She closed down the lid of the phone and handed it back to Alan, who
seemed relieved to see us departing over the tree tops in the direction of the camps.
We had covered perhaps ten miles, in what still seemed to me a surprisingly easy fashion, when Wilma
explained, that from here on we would have to keep to the ground.' We were nearing the camps, she
said, and there was always the possibility that some small Han scoutship, invisibly high in the sky, might
catch sight of us through a projectoscope and thus find the general location of the camps.
Wilma took me to the Scout office, which proved to be a small building of irregular shape, conforming
to the trees around it, and substantially constructed of green sheet-like material.
I was received by the assistant Scout Boss, who reported my arrival at once to the historical office,
and to officials he called the Psycho Boss and the History Boss, who came in a few minutes later. The
attitude of all three men was at first polite but skeptical, and Wilma's ardent advocacy seemed to
amuse them.
For the next two hours, I talked, explained and answered questions. I had to explain, in detail, the
manner of my life in the 20th Century and my understanding of customs, habits, business, science and
the history of that period, and about developments in the centuries that had elapsed. Had I been in a
classroom, I would have come through the examination with a very poor mark, for I was unable to
give any answer to fully half of their questions. But before long I realized that the majority of these
questions were designed as traps. Objects, of whose purpose I knew nothing, were casually handed
to me, and I was watched keenly as I handled them.
In the end I could see both amazement and belief begin to show in the faces of my inquisitors, and at
last the Historical and Psycho Bosses agreed openly that they could find no flaw in my story or
reactions, and that my story must be accepted as genuine.
They took me at once to Big Boss Hart. He was a portly man with a "poker face." He would
probably have been the successful politician even in the 20th Century.
They gave him a brief outline of my story and a report of their examination of me. He made no comment
other than to nod his acceptance of it; Then he turned to me. "How does it feel?" he asked. "Do we
look funny to you?"
"A bit strange," I admitted. "But I'm beginning to lose that dazed feeling, though I can see I have an
awful lot to learn."
"Maybe we can learn some things from you, too," he said, "So you fought in the First World War, Do
you know, we have very little left in the way of records of the details of that war, that is, the precise
conditions under which it was fought, and the tactics employed. We forgot many things during the Han
terror, and-well~ I think you might have a lot of ideas worth thinking over for our raid masters. By the
way, now that you're here, and can't go back to your own century, so to speak, what do you want to
do? You're welcome to become one of us. Or perhaps you'd just like to visit with us for a while, and
then look around among the other gangs. Maybe you'd like some of the others better. Don't make up
Your mind now. We'll put you down as an exchange for a while. Let's see. You and Bill Hearn ought to
get along well together. He's Camp Boss of Number 34 when he isn't acting as Raid Boss or Scout
Boss. There's a vacancy in his camp. Stay with him and think things over as loag as you want to. As