"Dafydd ab Hugh, Brad Linaweawer DOOM: Endgame (english)" - читать интересную книгу автораthen the fickle wind had blown the ultrafine sand
around, obliterating our tracks. As they began to fan out for a spiral search, calling him repeatedly over the radio, A.S., Sears and Roebuck, and I withdrew far from the canyon carved by the Fred ship ... and even that gouge was filling, starting to be hard to spot. At two kilometers directly perpendicular to our trail, I called a halt. I figured we were far enough along that they weren't likely to find us anytime soon, now that we had destroyed all of the prisoner's electronic tells ... we hoped. I knelt down next to the guy. He looked vaguely Mongolian and vaguely Mediterranean, a perfectly normal human with black hair and dark brown eyes, dark-complected, with slight Oriental folds over his eyes. But from when? How far advanced was he over us? We had left Earth some three or four hundred years ago; I wasn't really sure of the conversion factor. But when did he leave? I drew my boot knife and rested it alongside his neck. "Chill, brother," I said, then thought better of it. Language had evidently changed in several centuriesЧbest to avoid expressions as much as possible, stick to basic English. "We are humans," I said, indicating Arlene and myself. "We need infor- The moment he felt my knife, the prisoner relaxed. He seemed resigned to his fate, whether it was death or release. He listened intently, then nodded a few seconds after I finished. "Yes," he said, with a strange pronunciation of the vowelЧit came out like Yauz. "No, you do not understand," I persisted. "Why are you here?" "Yes . . . weЧcame fromЧEarthground planet." "I can tell." "Cut the crap!" Arlene snarled. I drew my finger across my throat, and she shut up. "What was the reason for you to come?" I tried again. My prisoner seemed only too eager to talkЧ something which always sets off alarm bells in my head. I mean, why should he want to help us? "Yes. We have arrived [unintelligible] to chase." "What are you chasing?" "[New word]. Aliens. When come you from?" I told him the year we left, and his brows shot up instantly. He didn't take time to calculate what that was in dog years, so I presumed when he left people still used the same calendar we did. "Taggart, Sand- ers," I said, introducing us. "They are Sears and |
|
|