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

CrozierтАЩs gruямА voice makes the caulkerтАЩs mate start again, but he shuямДes his
shrug salute and turns his white nose back toward the darkness beyond the
bow.
Crozier strides up the deck toward the port lookout post. The previous
month, he prepared the ship for winter after three weeks of false hope of escape
in August. Crozier had once again ordered the lower spars to be swung around
along the parallel axis of the ship, using them as a ridgepole. Then they had
reconstructed the tent pyramid to cover most of the main deck, rebuilding the
wooden rafters that had been stowed below during their few weeks of
optimism. But even though the men work hours every day shoveling avenues
through the foot or so of snow left for insulation on deck, hacking away ice
with picks and chisels, clearing out the spindrift that has come under the canvas
roof, and ямБnally putting lines of sand down for traction, there always remains a
glaze of ice. CrozierтАЩs movement up the tilted and canted deck is sometimes
more a graceful half-skating motion than a stride.
 8 || DAN SIMMONS


The appointed port lookout for this watch, midshipman Tommy Evans тАФ
Crozier identiямБes the youngest man on board by the absurd green stocking cap,
obviously made by the boyтАЩs mother, that Evans always pulls down over his
bulky Welsh wig тАФ has moved ten paces astern to allow Third Lieutenant
Irving and Silence some privacy.
This makes Captain Crozier want to kick someone тАФ everyone тАФ in the
arse.
The Esquimaux woman looks like a short round bear in her furry parka,
hood, and pants. She has her back half turned to the tall lieutenant. But Irving
is crowded close to her along the rail тАФ not quite touching, but closer than an
oямГcer and gentleman would stand to a lady at a garden party or on a pleasure
yacht.
тАЬLieutenant Irving.тАЭ Crozier didnтАЩt mean to put quite so much bark into the
greeting, but heтАЩs not unhappy when the young man levitates as if poked by the
point of a sharp blade, almost loses his balance, grabs the iced railing with his
left hand, and тАФ as he insists on doing despite now knowing the proper
protocol of a ship in the ice тАФ salutes with his right hand.
ItтАЩs a pathetic salute, thinks Crozier, and not just because the bulky mittens,
Welsh wig, and layers of cold-weather slops make young Irving look something
like a saluting walrus, but also because the lad has let his comforter fall away
from his clean-shaven face тАФ perhaps to show Silence how handsome he is тАФ
and now two long icicles dangle below his nostrils, making him look even more
like a walrus.
тАЬAs you were,тАЭ snaps Crozier. God-damn fool, he mentally adds.
Irving stands rigid, glances at Silence тАФ or at least at the back of her hairy
hood тАФ and opens his mouth to speak. Evidently he can think of nothing to
say. He closes his mouth. His lips are as white as his frozen skin.
тАЬThis isnтАЩt your watch, Lieutenant,тАЭ says Crozier, hearing the whip-crack in
his voice again.
тАЬAye, aye, sir. I mean, no, sir. I mean, the captain is correct, sir. I mean тАжтАЭ
Irving clamps his mouth shut again, but the eямАect is ruined somewhat by the
chattering of his teeth. In this cold, teeth can shatter after two or three hours тАФ