"Guy N. Smith - Blood Circuit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Guy N)

PART ONE THE HAMMERTON CURSE

CHAPTER ONE




THE GIRL struggled, tried to fight off her rising panic as well as the man who held her, but he pulled her
back. She swung wildly at him screaming her fear and frustration. 'Let go of me, Steve. I want to look.'

'No.' He spoke firmly, a silhouette against the starlight of a warm August night. 'That's one thing I'm not
going to allow you to do.'

'But he might still be ... alive.' Her voice tailed off in a tremble of hopelessness. She knew there was no
way her father could still live, in the same way that she had known that there could have been no hope for
her brother, Justin, when she had seen the photographs in the papers of his mangled burned-out car on
the Le Mans track less than a month ago. And now this!

Lee Hammerton did not try to break free now, just accepted the inevitable and stared into the night until
she was able to make out the shape of the huge baler, a robot made by Man; stronger than Man.
Ruthless if it got out of control, a hungry carnivorous beast if you under-estimated it, got in its way.

The machine was still running, a clanking monster that seemed to be laughing in its own mechanical way,
grinding its teeth. It had fed but still it was hungry.

'He might not ... be in there,' she said weakly.

The tall, fair-haired man sighed, wished that he could tell a convincing lie but it was pointless. The police
and the

doctor would be here any minute and then every detail would have to be revealed. Nobody would be
able to hide anything no matter how gruesome. Lee would have to face the truth then.

'He's in there.' Steve Kilby looked down at the girl: even in shocked terror she was beautiful, had a man
wanting her no matter what. The long dark hair was tangled, her perfect features white and streaked with
tears. Her bottom lip was bleeding where she had bitten it but you still wanted to kiss her, to hold her
close, tell her that everything was going to be OK even though you knew it wasn't. You didn't give a
damn whether or not Craig Hammerton had been baled into a pulped bloody square of flesh and bone or
not, because his daughter still lived and that was all that mattered. You'd fake grief and make a good job
of it for her sake.
'Clyde found him.' Kilby was afraid she might slip his hold and go and see for herself. There's no point in
either of us looking. We'd better get back. There's nothing we can do.'

'No!' Defiant as always. Lee Hammerton's mind was made up. She was staying. A thought crossed her
mind, one that had her stomach knotting and brought on a desire to be violently sick: I'm the boss now
that Daddy's gone, and Justin, too. A millionairess. I give the orders, everybody else has to obey them.
Kilby isn't just my lover nor my chief driver. He's my servant. Clyde, too.

'All right, we'll stay until the others get here.' Kilby tried to edge her a yard or so back but she held her
ground.