"A. E. Van Vogt - Asylum" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

"Hush!" Her whisper was tense. "Footsteps! Quick, get to your feet!"
He was aware of the shadowed form of her rising; then her hands were tugging
at him. Dizzily, he stood up.
"I don't think," he began wanly, "that I can-"
"Jeel!" Her whisper beat at him; her hands shook him. "It's a man and a woman.
They're 'life,' Jeel, 'life'!"
Life!
He straightened with a terrible effort. A spark of the unquenchable will to
live that had brought him across the black miles and the blacker years, burst
into flames inside him. Lightly, swiftly, he fell into step beside Merla, and
strode beside her into the open. He saw the shapes of the man and the woman.
In the half~night under the trees of that street, the couple came toward them,
drawing aside to let them pass; first the woman came, then the man-and it was
as simple as if all his strength had been there in his muscles.
He saw Merla launch herself at the man; and then he was grabbing the woman,
his head bending instantly for that abnormal kiss- Afterward-after they had
taken the blood, too-.grimness came
to the man, a hard fabric of thought and counterthought, that slowly formed
into purpose; he said:
"We'll leave the bodies here."
Her startled whisper rose in objection, but he cut her short harshly: "Let me
handle this. These dead bodies will draw to this city news gatherers, news
reporters or whatever their breed are called on this planet; and we need such
a person now. Somewhere in the reservoir of facts possessed by a person of
this type must be clues, meaningless to him, but by which we can discover the
secret base of the Galactic Observer in this system. We must find that base,
discover its strength, and destroy it if necessary when the tribe comes."
His voice took on a steely note: "And now, we've got to explore this city,
find a much frequented building, under which we can bury


our ship, learn the language, replenish our own vital supplies-and capture
that reporter.
"After I'm through with him"-his tone became silk smooth- "he will undoubtedly
provide you with that physical diversion which you apparently crave when you
have been particularly chemical."
He laughed gently, as her fingers gripped his arm in the darkness, a
convulsive gesture; her voice came: "Thank you, Jeel, you do understand, don't
you?"

II

Behind Leigh, a door opened. Instantly the clatter of voices in the room faded
to a murmur. He turned alertly, tossing his cigarette onto the marble floor,
and stepping on it, all in one motion.
Overhead, the lights brightened to daylight intensity; and in that blaze he
saw what the other eyes were already staring at: the two bodies, the man's and
the woman's, as they were wheeled in.
The dead couple lay side by side on the flat, gleaming top of the carrier.
Their bodies were rigid, their eyes closed; they looked as dead as they were,