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

said. He paused, then thoughtfully, "Your reasoning is fairly
accurate. Fairly. Naturally, I am not all powerful, but it seems
to me you have forgotten one little point. I won't tell you
what it is. And now," he said, "good day to you. Get back to
your ship, and be on your way. I have much to do."
Enash had been standing quietly, aware of the fury build-
ing up in him again. Now, with a hiss, he sprang forward,
suckers outstretched. They were almost touching the smooth
fleshwhen something snatched at him.
He was back on the ship.
He had no. memory of movement, no sense of being dazed
or harmed. He was aware of Veed and Yoal and Captain
Goisid standing near him as astonished as he himself. Enash
remained very still, thinking of what the man had said:
"... Forgotten one little point." Forgotten? That meant they
knew. What could it be? He was still pondering about it when
Yoal said:
"We can be reasonably certain our bombs alone will not
work."
They didn't.
Forty light-years out from Earth, Enash was summoned to
the council chambers. Yoal greeted him wanly. "The mon-
ster is aboard."
The thunder of that poured through Enash, and with it
came a sudden comprehension. "That was what he meant we
had forgotten," he said finally, aloud and wonderingly. "That
he can travel through space at will within a limitwhat was
the figure he once usedof ninety light-years."
He sighed. He was not surprised that the Ganae, who had
to use ships, would not have thought immediately of such a
possibility. Slowly, he began to retreat from the reality. Now
that the shock had come, he felt old and weary, a sense of
his mind withdrawing again to its earlier state of aloofness. It
required a few minutes to get the story. A physicist's assistant,
on his way to the storeroom, had caught a glimpse of a man
in a lower corridor. In such a heavily manned ship, the
wonder was that the intruder had escaped earlier observa-
tion. Enash had a thought.
"But after all we are not going all the way to one of our
planets. How does he expect to make use of us to locate it
if we only use the video" be stopped. That was it, of
course. Directional video beams would have' to be used, and
the man would travel in the right direction the instant contact
was made.
Enash saw the decision in the eyes of his companions, the
only possible decision under the circumstances. And yet, it
seemed to him they were missing some vital point. He
walked slowly to the great video plate at one end of the
chamber. There was a picture on it, so sharp, so vivid, so
majestic that the unaccustomed mind would have reeled as