"Russell, Eric Frank - Symbiotica" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

Brushing past us, Jay bore his burden into our tiny
surgery where Wally Simcox - Sam's side-kick - started
working on the patient. The victim's buddy hung around
outside the door and looked sick. He looked considerably
more sick when Captain McNulty came along and stabbed
him with an accusative stare before going inside.
After half a minute, the skipper shoved out a red, irate
face and rapped, "Go tell Steve to recall that lifeboat at
once - Sam is urgently needed."

Dashing to the radio-room, I passed on the message.
Steve's eyebrows circumnavigated his face as he flicked a
switch and cuddled a microphone to his chest. He got
through to the boat, told them, listened to the reply.

"They're returning immediately."

Going back, I said to the uneasy duck-on-the-rock
enthusiast, "What happened, Stupid?"

He flinched. "That bush made a target of him and filled
his area with darts. Long, thin ones, like thorns. All over
his head and neck and through his clothes. One made a
pinhole through his ear. Luckily they missed his eyes."

"Hell!" said Brennand.

"A bunch of them whisked past me on my left, fell
twenty feet behind. They'd plenty of force; I heard them
buzz like angry bees" He swallowed hard, shuffled his
feet around "It must have thrown a hundred or more."

McNulty came out then, his features somewhat fierce.
Very slowly and deliberately he said to the escapee, "I'll
deal with you later!" The look he sent with it would have
scorched the pants off a space cop. We watched his portly
form parade down the passage.

The victim registered bitterness, beat it to his post at
the stern. Next minute the lifeboat made one complete
circle overhead, descended with a thin zoom ending in a
heavy swish. Its crew poured aboard the Marathon while
derricks clattered and rattled as they swung the boat's
twelve-ton bulk into the mother ship.

Sam remained in the surgery an hour, came out shaking
his head. "He's gone. We could do nothing for him."

"You mean he's-dead?"