"Eric Frank Russel - Mechanistria" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

rooftop to rooftop, but the rest of us could do nothing but wait like steers in a slaughterhouse.
Then a dot appeared in the sky and a high-pitched whine told us that the pinnace was coming
back. A swift little bullet, it dived toward us at full pelt. As nearly as I could judge it was likely to
reach our precarious perch slightly ahead of the threatening tower-contraption, but I doubted
whether it could land, open its airlock, take us aboard and blow free before trouble started. Our
pulses working overtime, we watched the swift onrush of the pinnace, the weighty forward trundle
of the super-sized foe, and anxiously compared the progress of both.
Just as IтАЩd decided that half of us might make it at the expense of the other half, those in the
pinnace saw the advancing tower. The vessel made no attempt to land. Describing a tight half-turn
that rocked it laterally, it shot over us with a screaming rush of air, cut across the head of the tower
now a mere fifty yards away. A midget atomic bomb must have dropped, though I didnтАЩt see it go
down.
тАЬDrop!тАЭ rasped Jay Score, urgently.
We flopped on our faces. Something whooped sky-high, our building swayed, a rare assortment
of hardware fountained up from the street. For a few seconds there was an eerie silence broken only
by the composite clankings of survivors of the metal population and the receding howl of the
pinnace. Then came a great crash as the towerlike mechanism fell headlong. The building
shuddered again.
I clambered to my feet. The tower reposed full length in the street, its platform wrecked, its long,
tubular body twisted and distorted, its lensed and many-armed head battered out of recognition and
devoid of animation. The fallen giant had put an end to a dozen smaller machines with its collapse.
тАЬDamme,тАЭ chirruped Sug Farn, violently awakened. тАЬWhatтАЩs all the row about? Are they at it
again? тАЬ He stretched his tentacles, yawned.
тАЬGet out of that dent,тАЭ ordered Kli Yang, looking at him with disfavour. тАЬMake room for the
pinnace.тАЭ
Without haste and with poor grace, Sug Farn moved over to a corner of the roof where we
formed a tiny, hopeful group. Zooming round in a shallow sweep, the pinnace came in, settled
down, landed. Under its weight, the dent in the roof became slightly deeper, more pronounced. But
for immense supports beneath the roof, and the expertness of the vesselтАЩs landing, the little ship
might have burst clean through the plates and thrown the lot of us into the enemyтАЩs power.
Thankfully we piled into the boat. The skipper wasnтАЩt aboard and neither was Brennand. Second
Navigator Quirk held the controls and had a crew of five Terrestrials and one Martian, the
minimum for a vessel of this size. The Martian was Kli Dreen. He didnтАЩt say a word to his snaky-
armed fellows as they squirmed through the lock, merely stared at them and sniffed.
тАЬI will bet twelve interplanetary dollars,тАЭ Kli Yang told him, acidly, тАЬthat your underworked
brain never thought of bringing our low-pressure helmets so that we could find relief from this
infernal stink.тАЭ
тАЬHear him!тАЭ appealed Kli Dreen, swivelling one eye toward me. тАЬHe explores the universe and
then complains about a little pressure.тАЭ The eye rolled back to Kli Yang as he added triumphantly,тАЭ
Kli Morg would have won if he hadnтАЩt insisted on saving his bishop.тАЭ
 тАЬHa-ha!тАЭ Kli Yang laughed with artificial violence. He tried to wink knowingly at Sug Farn, and
failed. The Martians frequently tried to imitate the Terrestrial habit of significantly closing one eye;
they kept on trying despite the dismal fact that it canтАЩt be done without eyelids. тАЬA week late in
seeing the solution, as usual!тАЭ
I found young Wilson standing by the forward observation port, near Pilot Quirk. The camera
lay ready in his hands and he fairly drooled. Two more cameras sat in holding-straps on the wall,
one of them an instrument with a lens the size of a saucer.
тАЬOh, sarge,тАЭ he yammered at me. тАЬShots, shots, shots-dozens of them.тАЭ His face was magenta
with professional glory. тАЬAnd I got that tower-thing the moment we bopped it. Watch me get these
two as well.тАЭ