"A. E. Van Vogt - The Rat & the Snake & Other Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

of imminent catastrophe. For he could see that picture of a
great race facing death. It must have come swiftly, but not so
swiftly that they didn't know about it. There were too many
skeletons in the open, lying in the gardens of magnificent
homes, as if each man and his wife had come out to wait for
the doom of his kind. He tried to picture it for the council, thtit
last day long, long ago, when a race had calmly met its end-
ing. But his visualization failed somehow, for the others shifted
impatiently in the seats that had been set up behind the series
of energy screens, and Captain Gorsid said, "Exactly what
aroused this intense emotional reaction in you, Enash?"
The question gave Enash pause. He hadn't thought of it as
emotional. He hadn't realized the nature of his obsession, so
subtly had it stolen upon him. Abruptly now, he realized.
"It was the third one," he said slowly. "I saw him through
the haze of energy fire, and he was standing there in the dis-
~ tant doorway watching us curiously, just before we turned to
run. His bravery, his calm, the skilful way he had duped us
it all added up."
"Added up to his death!" said Hamar. And everybody
laughed.
"Come now, Enash," said Vice-captain Mayad good-
humouredly, "you're not going to pretend that this race is
braver than our own, or that, with all the precautions we
have now taken, we need fear one man?"
Enash was silent, feeling foolish. The discovery that he had
had an emotional obsession abashed him. He did not
want to appear unreasonable. He made a final protest, "I
merely wish to point out," he said doggedly, "that this desire
to discover what happened to a dead race does not seem abso-
lutely essential to me."
Captain Gorsid waved at the biologist, "Proceed," he said,
"with the revival."
To Enash, he said, "Do we dare return to Gana, and
recommend mass migrationsand then admit that we did not
actually complete our investigations here? It's impossible, my
friend."
It was the old argument, but reluctantly now Enash ad-
mitted there was something to be said for that point of view.
He forgot that, for the fourth man was stirring.
The man sat up. And vanished.
There was a blank, horrified silence. Then Captain Gor-
sid said harshly, "He can't get out of there. We know that.
He's in there somewhere."
All around Enash, the Ganae were out of their chairs, peer-
ing into the energy shell. The guards stood with ray guns held
limply in their suckers. Out of the comer of his eye, he saw
one of the protective screen technicians beckon to Veed,
who went over. He came back grim. He said, "I'm told the
needles jumped ten points when he first disappeared. That's