"Timothy Zahn - Night Train to Rigel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

me was changing, gradually slowing down. The Quadrail was coming into station.
I opened my eyes to slits. My chin was resting against my breastbone, my arms
folded across my chest with my watch visible on my wrist. Two hours had passed
since our departure from Terra Station: an hour longer man I should have
slept, three hours less than it took to get to New Tigris.
So why and where were we stopping?
Carefully, I lifted my head and opened my eyes all the way. When I'd gone to
sleep there had been six other passengers besides me in the car. All six had
disappeared.
Or perhaps not. No one was visible, but in front of the stack of crates on my
right, in the narrow space leading to the exit, I caught a slight movement of
shadow. Someone, apparently, was standing by the car's door.
The Bellido?
I slid sideways out of my seat, my heartbeat doing a nice syncopation with me
click-clack of the wheels, and started forward. Theoretically, the Spiders
didn't permit weapons aboard passenger Quadrails. But theoretically, there
weren't any stops between Earth and New Tigris, either.
I'd covered about half the distance to the door when, with the usual muffled
squeal of brakes, we rolled to a halt. The shadow shifted again, and I
crouched down behind the nearest seat as the figure stepped into view.
It wasn't the Bellido. It was The Girl.
"Hello, Mr. Compton," she said. "Would you come with me, please?"
"Come with you where?" I asked carefully.
"Outside," she replied, gesturing to the door beside her. "The Spiders would
like to speak with you."
THREE:
The door opened, and because I doubted I really had a choice, I followed her
out onto the platform.
At first glance it seemed to be your standard, plain-vanilla Quadrail station.
But the second glance showed that there was not, in fact, anything standard
about it.
For one thing, there were only four sets of tracks spaced around the inside of
the cylinder instead of the usual thirty. The station itself was far shorter
than usual, too, probably only a single kilometer long. Finally, instead of
the standard mix of maintenance and passenger-support buildings, the spaces
between the tracks were filled with purely functional structures, ranging in
size from small office-type buildings to monstrosities the size of airplane
hangars, with whole mazes of extra track leading between them and the main
lines.
"This way," The Girl said, setting off toward one of the smaller buildings.
I watched her go, my feet momentarily refusing to move. I could think of only
one reason the Spiders would possibly want to talk to me, and it wasn't a
particularly pleasant thought.
And for them to have been willing to stop a whole train to
do so made it mat much worse. I glanced back over my shoulder, wondering what
they were going to tell the rest of the passengers.
They weren't going to tell the rest of the passengers anything for the simple
fact that there weren't any other passengers. The rest of the Quadrail had
vanished. My car, conveniently emptied of all its occupants except me, plus
the baggage car behind it, stood together on the track in front of another