"Tepper, Sheri S - A Plague Of Angels - plangel4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

from up in there, behind those walls, so maybe you better not let 'era know
who you are. I role that sentry you'uz just a messenger. You know Sybbis
with us here? She say she carryin' your baby." There was something quite
wistful in CummyNup's tone.
Abasio dug his toe into the dirt and tried to think of SOmething sensible
to say.
"Old Chief, he thought that was a good thing, said CummyNup. "Way
I hear." ,,
"Old Chief sent Survivors to kill me!"
"Yeah, but he send more later to bring you back. He figure out you his
son. ' '
"Old Chief Purple's son!"
"He think so. He want you back bad."
go back to now, though. Cities're all gone. CummyNup sighed. "Notbin' to
brightened. "Could go to the Edge. Old Chief Purple, he live in the Edge.
Maybe he glad to see you, anyhow." "He thought for a moment, then
Abasio sighed. "That's the last thing on my mind right now. Right now
we got to figure out how to make this fight count. Those things up there get
loose, start wanderin' around the world, we'll all be as gone as the cities"
"How we gonna fight those walkers, Basio~ Way I hear, they hard to
kill!" .
.
"Fire," he said. "That's what I came to tell you. Don't get up close to


388 Sheri S. Tepper

them, and use fire as much as you can. They're hard to wound, hard to kill, but
they'll burn. They can still work even after their outsides are burnt off, but
the lenses in their eyes crack and their guidance systems act up. Still, even
then they'll move faster than anything, CummyNup. Faster than you'd think
anything alive can move .... "His voice trailed away as he saw CummyNup
staring along the hill where something moved darkly in the grayhess of dawn.
"Abasio?" someone called. "Abasio? Is that you?"
"Tom?" Abasio returned the call. "What're you doing here?"
Tom's stocky figure emerged from the dimness, loaded down with one pack on his back and one in each hand.
"Mitty and I put this thing together," he said, indicating the packs and panting with the effort of carrying them. "Mitty thinks it will stop the walkers, if I can find the right frequency. I brought it out because everyone else is busy, and Mitty's got some new weapons he's putting up top of Gaddi
House so they can fire down into the canyon.""Do you need help setting it up?"
"Yes. Someplace where we won't be attacked. If it works, we can maybe put it on a horse and move around the walls. Mitty thinks it has to be l'airly close or it won't work at all."
Abasio and CummyNup helped him carry the packs into cover under the trees. By now, it was light enough to see the wall above them with the walkers arrayed along it. Tom began unpacking the parts, most ol' which seemed to have been put together with tape.
"I better go tell folks what to do," said CummyNup. "See you later. Basio."
Abasio raised a hand in farewell, before stooping to the mechani~m t~ offer whatever assistance he could.

Berkli remained on the Gaddi House roof, watching Mitty come ~~nd occasionally lending a hand with this or that piece of weaponry. Tom. Arakny, and Abasio were gone. Presumably they were busy. Berkli wished hc had enough knowledge to be busy. He had never felt so helpless and t'utile.
Dawn brooded gray between the black horizon and a line of dark cloud when a group of workers on the roof stopped short, all of them peering toward the north. As they moved slowly toward the northern parapet, Bcrkli joined them, and together they stared up at the crag where the Griffin was perched, now almost fully visible. The great beast was moving restlessly, its great face turned toward the east, as though waiting.
A rim of white fire rose above the horizon. The line of cloud turned t~ flame. The sky seemed to run with blood. The Griffin waited no l~*ngc~


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