"Rajnar Vajra - Afterburn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vajra Rajnar)

glow, which makes the puzzle waiting for me at the vestibule's far end
brightly visible. This puzzle is a purposeful arrangement of elements. Sitting
on a four-foot-tall marble pedestal is a small golden bowl filled with silver
flames. Near it is a closed, wire-mesh cage on its own platform. There are
three levers outside the cage. The cage has three separate divisions, each




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with its own basin, each basin filled with a different substance. A blue basin
holds water, a yellow one holds dark sand, and the last is a silver basin with
golden flames.
To be methodical, I try the inner doors; but as I expect, they don't
budge. Clearly, I'll have to solve the puzzle to get further inside the
cathedral. Good. Monsters have never attacked me whenever a logic problem has
arisen. And I desperately need a respite.
I will my floating weapon to vanish and it obeys. But as I examine the
apparatus, I worry. The puzzles have gotten increasingly harder and this one
seems unsolvable.
The goal is obviously to quench the flames in the golden basin.
Assuming this challenge follows the usual rules, one of the three other
substances should do the trick. But there are trapdoors underneath the caged
basins. Each lever is cleverly wired to open one third of the cage, and at the
same time, to open the trapdoors in the other two sections. I will have
exactly one chance to guess which substance is a silver-fire extinguisher.
Not easy. Water or sand would work with a normal fire, but these flames
aren't normal. They look like animated incandescent plumes of liquid mercury,
slightly translucent near the tips. Magic flames. Perhaps golden flames cancel
silver ones, perhaps not. Why should silver and gold be considered opposites?
I can't afford a mistake.
I am uncomfortable. I abhor being close to any kind of fire....
****
Carla Carroll and Troy Dane
"I met," Troy said hesitantly, "your latest protege last night."
Carla raised her hands apologetically. "I know. Doctor Williams left a
note on her watch-chart about it. It's really my fault, Troy. She's such a
quick study that I probably covered too much material too fast and left out
some important details. I'll try to fill in some gaps when she shows up for
her afternoon shift."
"But she does know what to look for and how to handle the equipment?"
"Do you imagine," Carla growled, "I would have let her take a watch by
herself if I wasn't convinced she was ready?"
Troy didn't move but somehow he seemed to take a step backwards.
"Absolutely not! I didn't mean to imply any such thing!"
"Glad to hear it."
"Uh, how is she working out ... generally? She isn't exactly your
average doctor."
Carla studied Troy's face. It was as earnest, damp, and big as usual
but she'd learned long ago that her department head had hidden depths, or