"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 19 - The Quillian Sector" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

in the dust and those caught in the mesh of destructive forces.
There are rumors, but that is all."

"Expeditions sent and lost," said Yoka. "Companies formed
and dissolved, as the investigations they made turned to nothing.
We are not interested in such planets. We are only interested in
your quarry."

"Dumarest."

"Yes, Dumarest You are confident you can track him down?"

"Guide me to a world and if he is on it, I will find him. More,
give me a cluster of worlds and I will show you which he will
make for. You think I boast?" Bochner shook his head. "I speak
from knowledge. From conviction. From experience."

"A claim others have made. Now, they are dead."

"Killed by Dumarest?" Bochner looked at his hands. "I can
take care of myself."
 A conviction shared by others before they had died, but Irae
didn't mention that. Instead, he said, "Tell me one thing,
Bochner. Aside from the reward, why do you want to hunt
Dumarest?"

"Why?" Bochner inhaled, his breath a sibilant hiss over his
teeth. "Because if half of what you've told me is true, then he is
the most wily, the most dangerous and the most interesting
quarry I could ever hope to find."


The ship was small, unmarked; The crew, taciturn servants of
the Cyclan. Alone in his cabin, Bochner went through his routine
exercises, movements designed to keep his muscles in trim and
his reflexes at their peak. When Caradoc opened the door he was
standing, dressed only in pants, shoes and blouse, a knife
balanced on its point on the back of his right hand, which was
held level at waist height. As the young cyber watched, he
dropped the hand and, as the knife dropped towards his foot
snatched at it with his left hand, catching the hilt and tossing it
upwards to circle once before catching it in his right.

"A game," he explained. "One played often on Vrage. There we
stood naked and held our hands at knee height. Miss and you
speared a foot. There was a more sophisticated version played
for higher stakes in which, if you were slow, you usually died."
Idly, he spun the knife. "You have used a blade?"

"No."