"Dan Simmons - The Terror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Simmons Dan)

than that poor, unlucky bastard Franklin ever was sober. Or his rosy-cheeked lisping
pet poodle Fitzjames, for that matter.
Crozier shakes his head and walks down the icy deck forward to the bow and
toward the only man on watch he can make out in the ямВickering light from the
aurora.
It is short, rat-faced Cornelius Hickey, caulkerтАЩs mate. The men look all the
same out here on watch in the dark, since theyтАЩre all issued
 THE TERROR || 5


the same cold-weather slops: layers of ямВannel and wool covered with a heavy
waterproof greatcoat, bulbous mittens protruding from voluminous sleeves,
their Welsh wigs тАФ heavy watch caps with ямВoppy ears тАФ pulled tight, often
with long comforters тАФ scarves тАФ wrapped around their heads until only the
tips of their frostbitten noses are visible. But each man layers or wears his cold-
weather slops slightly diямАerently тАФ adding a comforter from home, perhaps, or
an extra Welsh wig tugged down over the ямБrst, or perhaps colorful gloves
lovingly knit by a mother or wife or sweetheart peeking out from under the
Royal Navy outer mittens тАФ and Crozier has learned to tell all ямБfty-nine of his
surviving oямГcers and men apart, even at a distance outside and in the dark.
Hickey is staring ямБxedly out beyond the icicle-sheathed bowsprit, the
foremost ten feet of which are now embedded in a ridge of sea ice, as HMS
TerrorтАЩs stern has been forced up by the ice pressure and the bow is pushed
lower. Hickey is so lost in thought or cold that the caulkerтАЩs mate doesnтАЩt notice
his captainтАЩs approach until Crozier joins him at a railing that has become an
altar of ice and snow. The lookoutтАЩs shotgun is propped against that altar. No
man wants to touch metal out here in the cold, not even through mittens.
Hickey starts slightly as Crozier leans close to him at the railing. TerrorтАЩs
captain canтАЩt see the twenty-six-year-oldтАЩs face, but a puямА of his breath тАФ
instantly turning into a cloud of ice crystals reямВecting the aurora тАФ appears
beyond the thick circle of the smaller manтАЩs multiple comforters and Welsh
wig.
Men traditionally donтАЩt salute during the winter in the ice, not even the
casual knuckling of the forehead an oямГcer receives at sea, but the thick-clad
Hickey does that odd little shuямДe and shrug and head dip by which the men
acknowledge their captainтАЩs presence while outside. Because of the cold, the
watches have been cut down from four hours to two тАФ God knows, thinks
Crozier, we have enough men for that on this overcrowded ship, even with the
lookouts doubled тАФ and he can tell just by HickeyтАЩs slow movements that heтАЩs
half-frozen. As many times as heтАЩs told the lookouts that they have to keep
moving on deck тАФ walk, run in place, jump up and down if they have to, all
the
 6 || DAN SIMMONS


while keeping their attention on the ice тАФ they still tend to stand immobile for
the majority of their watch, just as if they were in the South Seas wearing their
tropical cotton and watching for mermaids.
тАЬCaptain.тАЭ
тАЬMr. Hickey. Anything?тАЭ