"Zelazny, Roger - My Lady Of The Diodes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

My timing hadnТt been too bad. IТd left the package at the desk earlier, for a Mr. Fireman to pick up later. It sounded enough like a standard fire alarm to draw anyone in off the dock. I wished, though, that it had rung a trifle sooner. I hated having to give that stuff to those guards.

As the driver gunned his engine, I yanked my coveralls from the canvas bag and stepped into them, so that anyone glancing up the alley as I climbed into the back of the truck would think I was a laborer, loading an alligator-skin case and a canvas bag.

He put the rig into gear and I crawled toward the cab, spitting out cotton. I crouched down behind the Seekfax 5000 and finished buttoning my coveralls. I pushed the canvas bag into the corner and held Maxine in my lap.

УHow long do you think it will take, baby?Ф I asked, as the truck began to move.

УHow constipated did he look?Ф asked Maxine.

УHow the hell should I know?Ф

УThen how can I tell?Ф

УWell, approximately.Ф

УSufficient time to get him onto that stretch of road I told you about. If by some chance it doesnТt work by then, youТll have to create some sort of disturbance back here, lure him in, and mug him.Ф

УI hope it doesnТt come to that.Ф

УI doubt it will. That was pretty high-powered gum.Ф

I wondered, though, what would happen if it worked too soon. But Maxine was right, as always.

After a time, we pulled suddenly to the side of the road and came to a halt. The engine died. The slam of the cab door came almost simultaneously with the locking of the brakes.

УAll right, Danny, now make your way toward the rearЧФ

УMaxine! I just caught it! I couldnТt tell before, because the engine was running. ThereТs a faint vibration wherever I touch the chassis of the 5000. ItТs turned on!Ф

УSo? HeТs got a self-contained power unit. You know that. He canТt know youТre here unless you program that information into him.Ф

УЕ Unless he has some sort of audio pickup.Ф

УI doubt it. Why should he? You know how tricky a thing like that is to install.Ф

УThen whatТs it doing?Ф

УSolving problems? Who cares? YouТd better move, now, while the driver is still relieving himself off in the field. You may have to jump the ignition.Ф

I climbed out, taking Maxine and the canvas bag with me, and I mounted into the cab. The keys were still in the ignition, so I

started the engine and drove away. There was no sign of the driver.

About five miles farther up the road, I pulled into the culvert Maxine had designated and fetched the aerosols from the bag. I sprayed gray paint over the red sides of the truck, changed the license plates to out-of-state ones, blew compressed air against one panel to make it dry more rapidly, held up my stencil and sprayed the yellow paint through it. SPEED-D FURNITURE HAULING, it said.

Then we drove back onto the road and took a new route. УWe did it, Maxine. We did it,Ф I said.

УOf course,Ф she replied. УI told you I could compute anything. How fast are we going?Ф