"Arcady And Boris Strugatsky. Prisoners of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора

fallen trees. He made a great deal of noise, like a city dweller
unaccustomed to walking through woodland, so Maxim could no longer hear the
footsteps of the man who was creeping along behind them.
After they had passed the fallen trees. Maxim saw a meadow and a
ramshackle log cabin with boarded-up windows. The meadow was covered with
high grass, but Maxim noticed both fresh and old tracks running through it.
Whoever came here approached cautiously, trying to reach the cabin by a
different route each time. They entered a dark, musty room. The man
following them remained outside. The escort pulled up a trapdoor and said:
"Come over here. Be careful." In the darkness Maxim descended a wooden
staircase.
The cellar was warm and dry. Several people sat around a wooden table
and their eyes strained, trying to make out Maxim in the darkness. The odor
of a snuffed-out candle suggested to Maxim that they didn't want him to see
their faces. He recognized only two: Ordi, Illi Tader's daughter, and Memo
Gramenu, who sat by the staircase with a machine gun on his knees. Upstairs
the trapdoor slammed shut.
"Who are you," someone asked. "Tell us about yourself."
"May I sit down?" asked Maxim.
"Yes, of course. Come over here, toward me. There's a bench."
Maxim sat down at the table and glanced around him. Four people sat
around the table. They appeared gray and flat, like images in a very old
photograph. On his right sat Ordi. The broad-shouldered man sitting opposite
her, who bore an unpleasant resemblance to Captain Chachu, spoke out. "Tell
us about yourself," he repeated.
Maxim sighed. He detested the thought of introducing himself with a
pack of lies, but he had no choice.
"I don't know anything about my past," he explained. "They say I'm from
the mountains. Maybe I am. I don't remember. My name is Maxim. My surname -
Kammerer. In the Legion my name was Mac Sim. I can remember only as far back
as the moment I was arrested in the forest near the Blue Snake River."
The lies were over with and the rest went more easily. He told them his
story, trying to be brief but not to skip what was important.
"I led them as far as possible into the quarry, ordered them to run,
and took my time returning. Then the captain shot me. I regained
consciousness that night, made my way out of the quarry, and wandered into a
pasture. In the daytime I hid in the bushes and slept; at night I crawled
over to the cows and drank some milk. In a few days I felt better. I
borrowed rags from the shepherds, reached Duck Village, and found Illi Tader
there. You know the rest."
There was a long pause. Then a man with an impassive face and
shoulder-length hair spoke. "I don't understand why he doesn't remember his
past. I don't think that's likely. I'd like to hear the doctor's opinion."
"It happens," explained the doctor, a thin man who looked overworked.
Evidently anxious to smoke, he twirled a pipe in his hands.
"Why didn't you escape with the prisoners?" asked Broadshoulders.
"Guy was still back there. I hoped he would come with me." Maxim
paused, recalling Guy's pale bewildered face, the captain's hate-filled
eyes, the burning, stabbing pains in his chest and abdomen, and his wounded
feelings and sense of helplessness. "Of course it was stupid of me to think