"Zelazny, Roger - DEVILCAR" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

"ЧThe track is getting stronger," she added.
"Good. How's the weapons system?"
"Red light, all around. Ready to go."
Murdock snubbed out his cigarette and lit another.
"...Some of them carry dead people strapped inside," said Murdock,
"so they'll look like decent cars with passengers. The black Caddy
does it all the time, and it changes them pretty regularly. It keeps
its interior refrigeratedЧso they'll last."
"You know a lot about it, Sam."
"It fooled my brother with phoney passengers and phoney plates.
Hot him to open his Gas Fortress to it that way. Then the whole pack
attacked. It's painted itself red and green and blue and white, on
different occasions, but it always goes back to black, sooner or
later. It doesn't like yellow or brown or two-tone. I've a list of
almost every phoney plate it's ever used. It's even driven the big
freeways right into towns and fueled up at regular gas stops. They
often get its number as it tears away from them, just as the attendant
goes up on the driver's side for his money. It can fake dozens of
human voices. They can never catch it afterwards, though, because
it's souped itself up too well. It always makes it back here to the
Plain and loses them. It's even raided used car lotsЧ"

Jenny turned sharply in her course.
"Sam! The trail is quite strong now. _This_ way! It goes off in
the direction of those mountains."
"Follow!" said Murdock.
For a long time then Murdock was silent. The first inklings of
morning began in the east. The pale morning star was a white
thumbtack on a blueboard behind them. They began to climb a gently
slope.
"Get it, Jenny. Go get it," urged Murdock.
"I think we will," she said.
The angle of the slope increased. Jenny slowed her pace to match
the terrain, which was becoming somewhat bumpy. "What the matter?"
asked Murdock.
"It's harder going here," she said, "also, the trail is getting
more difficult to follow."
"Why's that?"
"There is still a lot of background radiation in these parts," she
told him, "and it is throwing off my tracking system."
"Keep trying, Jenny."
"The track seems to go straight toward the mountains."
"Follow it, follow it!"
They slowed some more.
"I am all fouled up now, Sam," she said. "I have just lost the
trail."
"It must have a stronghold somewhere around hereЧa cave or
something like thatЧwhere it can be sheltered overhead. It's the only
way it could have escaped aerial detection all these years."
"What should I do?"