"Smith, E E 'Doc' - Lensman 07 - Masters Of The Vortex" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

'Oh, Bob, the Patrol!' the girl screamed.
'Quiet! This is a zwilnik outfit, isn't it?'
'I'll say it is!' Ryder gasped in relief. 'Thionite ...'
'Thionite! How could it be? How could they bring it in here?'
'They don't. They're growing broadleaf and making the stuff. That's why they're going to kill us.'
'Just a minute.' Cloud threw in another switch. 'Lieutenant? Worse than I thought. Thionite! Get over here fast with every-
thing you got. Armor and semi-portables. Blast down the May-ner Street door. Stairway to right, two floors down, corridor to left, half-way along left side. Room B-Twelve. Snap it up, but keep your eyes peeled!'
'But wait, Cloud!' the lieutenant protested. 'Wait 'til we get there-you can't do anything alone!'
'Can't wait-got to get these kids out-evidence!' Cloud broke the circuit and, as rapidly as he could, one-handed, buckled on gun-belts. Graves would have to kill these two youngsters, if he possibly could.
'For God's sake save Jackie, anyway!' Ryder prayed. He knew just how high the stakes were. 'And watch out for gas, radiation, and traps-you must have sprung a dozen alarms already.'
'What kind of traps?' Cloud demanded.
'Beams, deadfalls, sliding doors-I don't know what they haven't got. Graves said he could kill us in here with rays or gas or ...'
'Take Graves' private elevator, Dr. Cloud,' the girl broke in. 'Where is it- which one?'
'It's the blank wall-the yellow button on his desk opens it. Down as far as it will go.'
Cloud jumped up listening with half an ear to the babblings from below as he searched for air-helmets. Radiations, in that metal-lined room, were out-except possibly for a few beam-projectors, which he could deal with easily enough. Gas, though, would be bad; but every drug-house had air-helmets. Ah! Here they were!
He put one on, made shift to hang two more around his neck -he had to keep his one hand free. He punched the yellow button; rode the elevator down until it stopped of itself. He ran along the corridor and drove the narrowest, hottest possible beam of a DeLameter into the lock of B-12. It took time to cut even that small semi-circle in that refractory and conductive alloy-altogether too much time-but the kids would know who it was. Zwilniks would open the cell with a key, not a torch. They knew. When Cloud kicked the door open they fell upon him eagerly.
'A helmet and a Delameter apiece. Get them on quick! Now help me buckle this. Thanks. Jackie, you stay back there, out of the way of our feet. Bob, you lie down here in the doorway.
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Keep your gun outside and stick your head out just far enough so you can see. No farther. I'll join you after I see what they've got in the line of radiation.'
A spot of light appeared in a semi-concealed port, then another. Cloud's weapon flamed briefly.
'Projectors like those aren't much good when the prisoners have Delameters,' he commented, 'but I imagine our air right now is pretty foul. It won't be long now. Do you hear anything?'
'Somebody's coming, but suppose it's the Patrol?'
'If so, a few blasts won't hurt 'em-they'll be in G P armor.' Cloud did not add that Graves would probably rush his nearest thugs in just as they were; to kill the two witnesses before help could arrive.
The first detachment to round the corner was in fact un-armored. Cloud's weapon flamed white, followed quickly by Ryder's, and those zwilniks died. Against the next to arrive, however, the DeLameters raved in vain. But only for a second.
'Back!' Cloud ordered, and swung the heavy door shut as the attackers' beams swept past. It could not be locked, but it could be, and was, welded to the jamb with dispatch, if not with neatness. 'We'll cut that trap-door off, and stick it onto the door, too -and any more loose metal we can find.'
'I hope they come in time,' the girl's low voice carried a prayer. Was this brief flare of hope false? Would not only she and her Bob, but also their would-be rescuer, die? 'Oh! That noise-s'pose it's the Patrol?"
It was not really a noise-the cell was sound-proof-it was an occasional jarring of the whole immense structure.
'I wouldn't wonder. Heavy stuff-probably semi-portables. You might grab that bucket, Bob, and throw some of that water that's trickling in. Every little bit helps.'
The heavy metal of the door was glowing bright-to-dull red "over half its area, and that area was spreading rapidly. The air of the room grew hot and hotter. Bursts of live steam billowed out and, condensing, fogged the helmets.
The glowing metal dulled, brightened, dulled. The prisoners could only guess at the intensity of the battle being waged. They could follow its progress only by the ever-shifting temperature of the barrier which the zwilniks were so suicidally determined to bum down. For hours, it seemed, the conflict raged. The thuddings and jarrings grew worse. The water, which had been
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a trickle, was now a stream and scalding hot.
Then a blast of bitterly cold air roared from the ventilator, clearing away the gas and steam, and the speaker came to life.
'Good work, Cloud and you other two,' it said, chattily. 'Glad to see you're all on deck. Get into this corner over here, so the zwilniks won't hit you when they hole through. They won't have time to locate you-we've got a semi right at the corner now.'
The door grew hotter, flamed fiercely white. A narrow pencil sizzled through, burning steel sparkling away in all directions- but only for a second. It expired. Through the hole there flared the reflection of a beam brilliant enough to pale the noon-day sun. The portal cooled; heavy streams of water hissed and steamed. Hot water began to spurt into the cell. An atomic-hydrogen cutting torch sliced away the upper two-thirds of the fused and battered door. The grotesquely-armored lieutenant peered in.
'They tell me all three of you are QX. Check?'
'Check.'
'Good. We'll have to carry you out. Step up here where we can get hold of you.'
'I'll walk and I'll carry Jackie myself,' Ryder protested, while two of the armored warriors were draping Cloud tastefully around the helmet of a third.
'You'd get boiled to the hips-this water is deep and hot. Come on!'
The slowly rising water was steaming; the walls and ceiling of the corridor gave mute but eloquent testimony of the appalling forces that had been unleashed. Tile, concrete, plastic, metal -nothing was as it had been. Cavities yawned. Plates and pilasters were warped, crumbled, fused into hellish stalactites; bare girders hung awry. In places complete collapse had necessitated the blasting out of detours.
Through the wreckage of what had been a magnificent building the cavalcade made its way, but when the open air was reached the three rescued ones were not released. Instead, they were escorted by a full platoon of soldiery to an armored car, which was in turn escorted to the Patrol station.
'I'm afraid to take chances with you until we find out who's who and what's what around here,' the young commander explained. 'The Lensmen will be here in the morning, with half
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an army, so I think you'd better spend the rest of the night here, don't you?'
'Protective custody, eh?' Cloud grinned. 'I've never been arrested in such a polite way before, but it's QX with me. You, too, I take it?'
'Us, too, decidedly," Ryder assented. 'This is a very nice jail-house, especially in comparison with where we've ...'
'I'll say so!" Jackie broke in, giggling almost hysterically. 'I never thought I'd be tickled to death at getting arrested, but I am!'
Lensmen came, and companies of Patrolmen equipped in various fashions, but it was several weeks before the situation was completely clarified. Then Ellington-Councillor Ellington, the Unattached Lensman in charge of all Narcotics-called the three into the office.
"How about Graves and Fairchild?' Cloud demanded before the councillor could speak.