"Mack Reynolds - North Africa 02 - Border, Breed or Birth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

The flac rifle began jumping and tracers reached out from
itтАФinaccurately. The Tommy-Noiseless automatics in the hands of Bey
and Elmer Allen gave their silenced flic flic flic sounds, equally ineffective.

On the ultra-stubby wings of the fast-moving aircraft, a row of brilliant
cherries flickered and a row of explosive shells plowed across the desert,
digging twin ditches, miraculously going between the air-cushion lorries
but missing both. It was upon them, over and gone, before the men on the
ground could turn to fire after it.

Elmer Allen muttered an obscenity under his breath.

Cliff Jackson looked around in desperation. "What can we do now? He
won't come close enough for us to even fire at him, next time."

Bey said nothing. Isobel had collapsed into the sand. Elmer Allen looked
over at her. "Nice try, Isobel," he said. "I think he came in lower and
slower than he would have otherwiseтАФtrying to see what the devil it was
you were doing."

She shrugged, hopelessly.

"Hey!" Kenny Ballalou pointed.

The rocketcraft was wobbling, shuddering, in the sky. Suddenly it burst
into a black cloud of fire and smoke and explosion.

At the same moment, Homer Crawford got up from the sand dune
behind which he'd stationed himself and plowed awkwardly through the
sand toward them.

Bey glared at him.

Homer shrugged and said, "I checked the way he came in the first time
and figured he'd repeat the run. Then I got behind that dune there and
faced in the other direction and started firing where I thought he'd be, a
few seconds before he came over. He evidently ran right into it."

Bey said indignantly, "Look, wise guy, you're no longer the leader of a
five-man Reunited Nations African Development Project team. Then, you
were expendable. Now you're El Hassan. You give the orders. Other people
are expendable."

Homer Crawford grinned at him somewhat ruefully and held up his
hands as though in supplication. "Listen to the man, is that any way to
talk to El Hassan?"

Elmer Allen said worriedly, "He's right, though, Homer. You shouldn't
take chances."