"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0053 - (45) Unknown Sector Milky Way" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Killarog sat down again and heaved a sigh. "Forget it," he murmured, suddenly weary and dejected. "I'm the one who should ask for pardon." He put his hands to his face, rubbed his eyes and finally looked at Ivsera through his fingers. Slowly and with emphasis he said, "The fact is, we were up on top..."
Ivsera jumped up. "You were what!?"
Killarog signalled to her. "Not so loud. Nobody is supposed to know about it because then everybody would want to go out. That's why I barked at you just now. Besides, your hopes are in vain."
Ivsera held her breath. "To what extent?"
"There isn't anything upstairs to eat, either! In the past 8 years not even a single turnip has grown in the area of Fenomat and beyond the city for a distance of 300 miles everything is contaminated. We didn't go any farther..."
"Yes, but..."
"No buts!" Killarog stood up. His expression was suddenly deadly earnest. "Do you want to see something, girl? Something exciting, something thrilling and... disillusioning?" Ivsera nodded wordlessly. "Then come with me."
They went out of the room. Killarog turned to his left and they went by Havan's door. He stopped in front of the end door of the corridor, which was right next to the bright grey bulkhead wall at the end of the passage. He produced a key, unlocked the door and opened it. Ivsera looked into a bare room whose lighting was the same cold colour as in all the other rooms. There was a door in the opposite wall.
"There's nobody in here," explained Killarog softly as Ivsera watched him hesitantly. "There's nothing to fear."
She went in. Killarog followed her and carefully closed the door behind him. Then he crossed the room and opened the door on the other side.
With anxiously widened eyes, Ivsera stared into a low, narrow passage that obviously did not belong to the regular bunker installation. The walls consisted of naked rocks which gleamed farther on with moisture. Every few feet the ceiling was supported by metal shorings.
Cool air issued out of the tunnel-which was a blessing in the over-heated, foul-smelling atmosphere of the bunker.
Killarog's voice was penetrating when he said: "Everything you are going to see must be held in strictest confidence. You must not dare discuss it with anyone-it wouldn't be healthy for you."
Ivsera nodded without removing her gaze from the mysterious passage.
"I'll lead the way," he invited.
She let him go ahead of her. Then she followed at his heels and closed the door behind her. Now she observed that the tunnel was not illuminated from the doorway but by a raw of lamps up ahead, which were sufficient to reveal the uneven places on the floor.
Killarog strode swiftly onward and she had a time of it to keep up with him.
The passage proved to be longer than Ivsera had at first imagined it to be. For a quarter of an hour the distant lamps did not seem to be getting any closer but at last they were reached. By the time Killarog came to a halt under the first of them, they had been underway for at least a half hour and considering Killarog's rate of march this meant that they had put about three quarters of a mile behind them.
"You still with me?" he asked with concern.
Ivsera nodded. Killarog continued walking. The lamps became more numerous and finally in the illumination of the last one Ivsera made out a figure that seemed to lie motionlessly on the ground.
Killarog approached it confidently. The figure moved. Ivsera saw a head come up and a pair of suspicious eyes greeted the 2 newcomers. She did not recall ever having seen the man. The most conspicuous thing about him was that he was fully clothed, in contrast to the short pants that were normally prescribed for the men.
"Anything new, Ther?" asked Killarog.
Ther nodded. "Yes, they're making headway."
"How much time is left?"
Ther shrugged and spread his hands in a gesture of approximation. "I'd say 2 or 3 days. What about this girl?"
"I'm briefing her," Killarog answered curtly.
Ivsera finally overcame her surprise and asked, "Killarog, how is it that this man gets to go around fully clothed? I could produce at least 5 complete dinners out of what he is wandering around in."
Ther looked at her in puzzlement.
Killarog laughed. "She is our provisioning girl," he explained to Ther, "Most of the stuff you've been eating for the past 4 years has come from her laboratory." Turning to Ivsera, he continued: "What do you think would happen to Ther if he had to lie around here half-naked?"
"Well, I..." Ivsera considered this in some bewilderment. "Does he do this very often?"
Killarog nodded. "He and 2 others. They rotate 10 hour watches, which is about the endurance span for each of them."
"And what does he do here?"
Killarog pointed at the ground. "Show her, Ther," he ordered.
Ther stood up. Ivsera noticed for the first time that a row of apparatuses was arranged near him. She saw small black instrument cases studded with switches, buttons and meters. The subterranean passage came to an end just a few steps beyond.
Ther connected a thin cord to one of the instrument boxes. The other end of the cord was attached to a funnel-like object which Ivsera recognized as a type of telephone receiver. Ther placed the box in an angle to his left, which was formed by the wall and the floor of the passage. She saw that the small case stood on sharp-pointed little legs.
Ther handed her the cord and the receiver. "Listen in here," he invited.
With some uneasiness, Ivsera pressed the receiver to her ear. She heard a monotonous roaring sound. When after several minutes she heard nothing else, she was about to hand the instrument back to Ther. But in that moment she suddenly heard a dull, repeated booming, as though from a giant, distant drum.
The new sound increased to a crescendo and then slowly faded. Ivsera was startled by it almost to a point of alarm. She was about to ask what it was when it came again.
"Wow!" Ther chuckled. "We don't need any amplifier for that! I can hear it from here."
Ivsera relinquished the receiver. "What is it?" she asked.
Killarog answered with a counter question: "You were just a little girl when the war broke out. Do you know where our present position is located, with relation to the Fenomat area?"
Ivsera searched back in her memory for everything she knew about the bunker layout. The main shaft was beneath the centre of the city but its peripheral passages stretched out for several miles in many directions, in some places to the city outskirts. The main corridors branched north, east, south and west from the centre. The particular section where the Council members lived was served by the eastern main passage.
"I'd guess we're closest to the suburb of Sallon," she ventured.
Killarog nodded. "Exactly. This spot is only two-tenths of a mile from the western branch corridor of the Sallon bunker."
Ivsera wanted to know what the drumming sound she had heard had to do with the discussion.
"I already told you," continued Killarog, "that a couple of us were up above to have a look around. The ones who went encountered a party of strangers. Perhaps they came from Sallon, perhaps from more distant regions. At each sighting they began shooting at our people as soon as they saw them. Our men had to make a run for it because they were not sufficiently armed."
Ivsera was frightened as she listened to him.
Killarog pointed to the wall of the passage. "So here you have listened to the sounds that the people of Sallon are making, in their attempt to bore an underground access route toward the Fenomat bunker. Ther believes that we only have 2 or 3 days left in which to prepare ourselves for their visit. Then they will break through..."

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