"Robert F. Young - L'Arc de Jeanne" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

had been depressed.
Frowning, he left the room. None of Jeanne Marie's other doors was equipped with a
print-lockтАФwhy, then, had she chosen to make a single exception? Was it because she kept her suit of
armor in the closet and didn't want him to see it? Now that he came to think of it, she had never
mentioned her role in the Battle of Fleur du Sud. Maybe she was ashamed of what she had done.
He was inclined to doubt it, which meant he would have to look elsewhere for an answer. Then,
emerging from the cave, he saw Jeanne Marie coming out of the woods, and he was so relieved to see
her and to know she was all right that he forgot all about the incident.
On another occasion when he was walking in the woods тАФalone, this timeтАФhe wandered into a
deep, gloomy hollow and came upon two skeletons. They were stretched out side by side beneath a
granite overhang and one of themтАФjudging from its more delicate bonesтАФwas that of a woman. There
were several rotted wisps of clothing in evidence, and near the man lay a small brass disk. D'Arcy picked
it up. It was thickly corroded, but after scraping away the verdigris with his pocket knife, he saw that it
was a Psycho-Phenomenalist identification tag. According to it, the man's name had been Alexander
Kane. The name rang a bell in D'Arcy's mind, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember where he had
run across it before.
It also struck a note of incongruity. On Ciel Bleu, as on all nationalist planets, the inhabitants bore
names strictly in keeping with their common ancestry, and whatever else it might be, "Alexander Kane"
wasn't French.
Before leaving the hollow, D'Arcy pocketed the disk, and when he got back to the cave, he showed
it to Jeanne Marie and told her about the skeletons. "I have seen them," she said. "They have been there
for many years. But I never go near them."
"Are you afraid of them?"
She shook her head. "IтАФI don't think so. But Rachel and Joseph have expressly forbidden me to
visit that part of the forest unless I absolutely have to."
Why? D'Arcy wondered. But he didn't ask the question aloud. For one thing, he doubted very much
whether Jeanne Marie knew the answer herself, and for another, he still refused to take the voices
seriously and was reluctant to give them credence by discussing them. They were Smith-Kolgoz's
problem anyway not his. And if not Smith-Kolgoz'sтАФO' Riordan's.
But the problem wouldn't leave him alone, especially this new aspect of it. Why, he kept wondering
over and over, should two voices in Jeanne Marie's mindтАФassuming there really were two voices in her
mindтАФbe afraid of two harmless sets of bones?
That night as he lay sleeping on the sofa, a low voice awakened him. It was O'Riordan's and its
sourceтАФor at least its apparent sourceтАФwas the miniature receiver-transmitter concealed in D'Arcy's
wristwatch. "Two more days to go, D'Arcy. Just thought I'd remind you."
D'Arcy was incredulous, not only because O'Riordan had deigned to radio him personally but
because he had lost all track of time. In one way, it seemed as though he had only been in Le Bois
Feerique for a few days; in another, it seemed as though he had been there all his life.
"You there, D'Arcy?" O'Riordan demanded.
"YesтАФyes, sir."
"Well, I'm glad to hear it," said the man in the moon. "Everything going according to schedule?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. I'll expect to hear from you within the next forty-eight hours then. If I don't, you can expect to
hear from me. And rememberтАФbefore you leave, bury that bow and those arrows. DeepтАФand where
nobody will find them."
The man in the moon signed off.
That was the end of D'Arcy's sleep for that night. When dawn came, he was still battling with his
conscience, but he had it pretty well under control. In a way, he would be doing Jeanne Marie a favor by
abducting her. Idyllic or not, a forest was no place for a young lady to live in. Charming or not, a cave
was not a fitting habitat for a young girl. O'Riordan's arbiters were six sycophants clad in long black