"E. E. Doc Smith - D'Alembert 10 - Revolt of the Galaxy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

The gun dropped from his hand and he crumpled to the floor, nearly taking Beti's knife with him.
Only her nervously tight grip on the handle enabled her to pull the blade out as the man fell.
A hand grabbed her shoulder from behind, and Beti realized with horror that the intruder had not
been alone. She whirled and slashed the man who'd grabbed her. A line of blood appeared across his
forehead and he yelled with pain, letting go of her. But Beti could see the silhouette of a third
man behind him, and her heart fell as she realized she would have a very difficult time escaping
from this trap.
She pushed hard at her second attacker, knocking him against the doorframe. Sidestepping him and
crossing the threshold, she approached the third man and swung her knife at him. The blade didn't
come near him, but he backed away, seeing what she'd done to his companions. His small retreat
gave her enough of an opening to run past him and down the hallway. Beti raced down the carpeted
corridor, yelling for help at the top of her lungs. She didn't really expect anyone to open their
doors, but maybe someone in one of the rooms would call security - if only to complain about the
shrieking madwoman who was ruining their sleep.
The third man must have been the most heavily armed, because a blaster bolt sizzled the air and
missed the fleeing woman by just a few centimeters. The second man hissed, "Not in here, you
fool," and the blasterfire stopped, but that one shot had lent great speed to Beti's feet. As the
two men started in pursuit, Beti turned a corner in the hallway and started looking for a way out.
At the end of this hallway was a door marked as a fire exit. On high-grav worlds like DesPlaines,
buildings were seldom more than two Stories tall and this hotel was no exception. Beti's room was
on the second floor, with a series of stairs serving as an emergency route to the ground. Beti
practically flew through the door, but went down the stairs cautiously. Natives of a high-grav
planet learned to deal carefully with any changes in elevation; even a short fall could mean
broken bones at the least, possibly even death. Beti did not want to let her assailants accomplish
their mission by default.
The would-be killers came through the second-floor door just as Beti reached ground level. The one
with the blaster shot again. His beam burned into the exit door just as Beti was reaching for it.
She barely hesitated. Yanking the door open, she raced outside into the cool night air.
Beti found herself in a darkened alley that ran alongside the hotel. The ground was cold and damp
against her bare feet. She paused for an instant to get her bearings. The main street lay to her
left, about thirty meters away. Taking a deep breath, she ran toward the street and bumped into a
stack of boxes that was standing in the darkness at the side of the alley. She cursed at the pain
as she bruised herself, then began running once more for the street. Her feet made a light padding
sound as she ran, a counterpoint to her harsh gasps for breath.
The two men were still chasing her. Apparently unwilling to risk blasterfire in public, they
probably hoped to wear her down and catch her before she could reach some place of safety.
At this hour of the night there was no one else on the street, and little motorized traffic. Even
the front door to the hotel was security-locked by now; Beti would have to stop at the door and
identify herself to the clerk on duty before she'd be let in, and she dared not pause that long
for fear her pursuers would catch up with her.
Beti was running short of breath; her gasps grew louder and longer. Sensing this, the two men
behind her quickened their pace. They were stronger and faster than she was and were not running
in bare feet; they were confident they could catch her before much longer.
A car zoomed by on the darkened street. Beti stood in front of it waving her arms, trying to flag
it down, but the driver refused to stop. Beti had to jump out of his way to avoid being run down,
and then resumed her flight. She could tell her pursuers were gaining on her, but she couldn't
move any faster. Newforest's gravity was two-and-a-half gees; DesPlaines' measured closer to
three. The difference was slight, but under such trying circumstances it was significant. With
each step she took, Beti wore herself down further as she fought the slightly higher gravity.