"Jerry Pournelle - 01 - Janissaries" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

and Rick had his .45 automatic pistol under his jacket. He was certain that Mason
had another.
The opening was inconveniently high off the ground, above waist level. тАЬNo
gangplank for us,тАЭ Rick told Mason. He put his hand on the sill. It felt like metal,

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but was slightly warm to the touch. тАЬHere goes,тАЭ he muttered, and vaulted in.
Mason followed closely.
He had half-expected the opening to close once he was inside, but it did nothing.
The doorway to his left slid open silently, revealing a short corridor. Rick
gestured to Mason to follow and went down that. Another door slid open at the far
end. The room beyond was very brightly lit.
He went in gingerly, feeling very much alone. Corporal Mason hadnтАЩt hesitated to
lead an infantry attack on a Cuban tank two days before, and had himself crept up
to it and blown off a tread with a satchel charge; he looked far more nervous now
than when he went off to attack the tank. Rick won-dered if he were as shaky as
the corporal, tried to straighten up and get control of his face. It wouldnтАЩt do to let
the troops see their officer shaken.
His eyes adjusted to the bright light. There were тАФbeingsтАФin the compartment.
Three of them, and they were not human.


2


They were shaped like humans. They had two arms and two legs and two eyes,
but the proportions were wrong. The shoulders were too high, almost as if they
didnтАЩt have necks, and their heads rose from too-thick bodies. They wore
clothing, coveralls of a shining metallic appearance, one dull grey, the other two
in brighter colors that shimmered when they moved.
Their hands had only three fingers, but there were two thumbsтАФone on each side
of a thick palm. They had no hair that Rick could see. Their lips were thinтАФfar
too thin to be humanтАФand their mouths were too high on their strangely flat
faces. Mouth too high, eyes too low, noseтАФnot really a nose at all, Rick decided.
Instead there was a fleshy snout-slit like a vertical second mouth. It rose until it
almost reached the line joining the eyes.
It took an effort to look away from them and in-spect the compartment. The room
was nearly bare. All around the upper parts of the compartment there were
screens, like TV sets but very thin. Some showed images: RickтАЩs troops standing
outside, Lieutenant Parsons and Sergeant Elliot talking and pointing, the machine-
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gun emplacements. The aliens seemed to have most of his defenses spotted, and
their TV gave bright images although outside it was nearly pitch-dark.
The creatures sat at a long table placed crosswise to the door he had entered. It