"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 7 - Planet of treachery" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

mannerisms-everything was identical to himself. He now knew why the voice sounded


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familiar-it was his own voice, one he certainly had not expected to hear from someone
else.

At first he was too amazed to do anything but stare at the figure approaching him.
Belatedly he realized that the other him was armed with a blaster, and was walking
within easy range. Whatever the purpose of this apparition, it could mean him no good at
all; he mustn't let it get closer. "That's far enough," he said, taking careful aim with his
stunner.

The other man kept coming forward. There was a smile on his face.

Perspiration was beading on the pirate's forehead. He pulled the trigger of his stun-gun
and heard the satisfying hum of its paralyzing beam.

The other man's smile broadened. He kept on walking. The pirate knew he could not
have missed; he was too good a shot. Perhaps the setting had been faulty. He checked
his weapon quickly and saw that it had been set on four. His lookalike should have
collapsed on the ground and been unconscious for two hours at that setting; instead, he
was still walking relentlessly toward the waterfall.

There was little time left for playing games; the pirate could not spend the effort
wondering what had gone wrong. He set the dial of his stunner all the way up to
ten-instantly lethal and fired again.

And again, nothing happened.

The double advanced to within fifteen meters of the waterfall and stopped there. He
seemed strangely reluctant to come much closer, but he had little need to; his weapon
would be quite effective within that range.

The blaster spoke in a deceptively quiet hum, but there was nothing deceptive about the
charge of dazzling energy that streaked from the barrel. There was a whiff of ozone
where the beam passed through air, and when it hit the waterfall it caused a cloud of
scalding steam to boil upward. Some, but not all, of the beam's energy was dissipated in
the water; the rest passed through and struck the pirate along the right side of the torso.
The man fell to the ground and lay still.

The double watched the body lying motionless on the ground behind the waterfall for a
few moments, then fired his blaster again. This time he directed its beam upward, at the
projecting lip of the overhang down which the water cascaded. He kept the beam at a
steady level until the rock, unable to withstand the continual energy bombardment, began
to crumble away. A minor rockslide ensued, burying the original pirate beneath a pile of
rubble. The body was totally hidden from view.