"Smith, Wilbur - Sunbird" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Wilbur)

PART I.

It cut across the darkened projection room and exploded silently against
the screen-and I did not recognize it. I had waited fifteen years for
it, and when it came I did not recognize it.

The image was swirled and vague, and it made no sense to me for I had
expected a photograph of some small object; a skull perhaps, or pottery,
or an artefact, a piece of gold work, beads, certainly not this
surrealistic pattern of grey and white and black.

Louren's voice, tight with excitement, gave me the clue I needed.

"Taken at thirty-six thou. at six forty-seven on the fourth of Sept, "
that was eight days ago, "exposed in a 35 men. Leica. " An aerial
photograph then. My eyes and brain adjusted, and almost instantly I felt
the first tickle of my own excitement begin as Louren went on in the
same crisp tone.

"I've got a charter company running an aerial survey over all my
concession areas. The idea is to pick the strike and run of geographical
formations. This photograph is only one of a couple of hundred thousand
of the area, the navigator did not even know what he was photographing.
However, the people in analysis spotted it, and passed it on to me."

His face turned towards me, pale and solemn in the glare of the
projector.

"You can see it, can't you, Ben? Just off centre. Top right quarter.

I opened my mouth to reply, but my voice caught in my throat and I had
to turn the sound I made into a cough. With surprise I found I was
trembling, and my guts seethed with an amalgam of hope and dread.

"It's classic! Acropolis, double enclosure and the "phallic towers. He
was exaggerating, they were faint outlines, indistinct and in places
disappearing, but the general shape and configuration was right.

"North," I blurted. "Where is north?"

"Top of picture-she's right, Ben. Facing north. Could the towers be
sun-oriented?"

I did not speak again. The reaction was coming swiftly now.

Nothing in my-life had been this easy, therefore this was suspect and I
searched for the flaws.

"Stratification," I said, "Probably limestone in contact with the
country granite. Throwing surface patterns. "