"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 3 - The Clockwork Traitor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

better shake it off soon, or I'll be in real trouble.

The police, he knew, would wait no more than thirty seconds outside the door
before
smashing it in and discovering him missing. He had heard only the voice of one
man
outside the door, . but there might be a second. Winsted doubted there would
be any
more than that-he was realistic enough to know that his own place in the
hierarchy of
crime did not warrant sending more than two policemen out after him. There was
a very
good chance, therefore, that his copter would be unguarded and that he'd be
able to
make his escape before they could catch him. He'd have to move quickly,
though.

The rooftop seemed clear as he emerged from the crawl way and began running
across
the open surface to his vehicle. He made it and slid into the pilot's seat
just as two men
came out of the elevator tube. Both had their stunners drawn and, as they
caught sight
of him, one dropped to his knees to fire while the other ran toward the
copter. The first
officer's stun-gun beam bounced harmlessly off the windshield of Winsted's
vehicle as it
began lifting rapidly into the air. The second man had dropped his stunner and
had
reached, instead, for his blaster. It was probably a low-powered field weapon,
but even
so it was something to respect.

Winsted changed all of his copter's acceleration from vertical to horizontal
and skimmed
sideways off the rooftop, avoiding the fire of the policeman who expected him
to go
upward. In doing so, Winsted narrowly avoided a collision with another copter
coming in
for a landing on the building next door. Swerving his vehicle around, the
fugitive took off
into the metropolitan sky, hoping to lose himself in the dense downtown air
traffic.

As he flew, he kept a careful watch all about him. At first it seemed as
though he had
made a successful getaway; the radar screen showed no other vehicles at this
altitude
following him in the traffic pattern. But the policemen at the building must
have recorded