"Aldiss, Brian - There is a Tide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Aldiss Brian W)

show you a map of the strata when we get back. It's more than
likely that all that runaway subterranean water may be head-
ing in our direction; that's what I'm afraid of. The possibility
has been known for a long while."
"And no precautions taken?"
"What could we do but cross our fingers? The possibility
exists that the Moon will spiral to Earth, but we don't all live
in shelters because of it."
"Justifying yourself, Jubal?"
"Possibly," he replied, looking away. Again that stupid an-
tagonism.
We flew through a heavy rain shower, which dappled the
grey surface of the lake. Then we were over the reported dis-
turbance. A dull brown stain, a blot on a bright new garment,
spread over the water, from the steep eastern shore to about
half a mile out.
"Put us down, pilot," Jubal ordered.
We sank, and kissed the lake. Several hundred yards away
rose the base of Mount Kangosi. I looked with admiration up
the slope; great slabs of rock stood out from the verdure;
crouching at the bottom of this colossus was a village, part of
it forced by the steepness of the incline to stand out on piles
into the lake.
"Leave everything to me, boss," J-Casta said, grabbing a
hand asdic from the port locker and climbing out on to the
float. We followed. It seemed likely that the disturbance was
due to a slight subsidence in the side of the lake basin. Such
subsidences, Jubal said, were not uncommon, but in this case
it might provide a link with Lake Victoria. If they could pin-
point the position of the new fault, frogmen would be sent
down to investigate.
"We're going to have company," Jubal remarked to me,
waving a hand over the water.
A dozen or so dugouts lay between us and the shore. Each
bore two er three shining-skinned fishermen. The two canoes
nearest us had swung round and were now being paddled
towards our float.
I watched them with more interest than I gave to the asdic
sweep. Men like these sturdy fishermen had existed here for
countless generations, unchanged: before white men had
known of them, before Rome's legions had destroyed the vine-
yards of Carthage, beforewho knows if not before the heady
uprush of civilization elsewhere?such men had fished quietly
in this great lake. They seemed not to have advanced at all,
so rapidly does the world move; but perhaps when all other
races have fallen away, burnt out and exhausted, these steady
villagers will come into a kingdom of their own. I would elect
to live in that realm.
A man in the leading canoe stood up, raising his hand in
greeting. I replied, glancing over his shoulder at the curtain of