"Baxter, Stephen - Manifold 03 - Origin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baxter Stephen)

And now that lumbering business-type jet reached dead centre of the artefact. It
twisted once, twice, then crumpled like a paper cup in an angry fist. Glittering
fragments began to hail into the ring.

It was over in seconds. There hadn't even been an explosion.



Fire:

Wind gusts. Lightning flashes. There is no Loud.

People come spewing out of the Mouth. They fall to the grass. The rain falls
steadily on the grass, hissing.


Emma Stoney:

'Like it got sucked in,' Malenfant said with grim fascination. 'Maybe the wheel
is a teleporter, drawing out our atmosphere.' The plane Juddered again, and she
could see him wrestling with the stick. 'Whatever it is it's making a mess of
the air flow.'

She could see the other planes, presumably military jets, pulling back to more
cautious orbits. But the T-38 kept right on, battering its way into increasingly
disturbed air. Malenfant's shoulders jerked as they hauled at the recalcitrant
controls.

'Malenfant, what are you doing?'

'We can handle this. We can get a lot closer yet. Those African guys are half
trained sissies -'

The plane hit another pocket. They fell fifty or a hundred feet before slamming
into a floor that felt hard as concrete.

Emma could taste blood in her mouth. 'Malenfant!'

'Did you bring your Kodak? Come on, Emma. What's life for? This is history.'

No, she thought. This is your wash-out. That's why you are risking your life,
and mine, so recklessly.

The artefact loomed larger in the roiling sky ahead of her, so large now that
she couldn't see its full circle for the body of the plane. Those iron-filing
people continued to rain from the base of the disc, some of them twisting as
they fell.

'Makes you think,' Malenfant said. 'I spend my life struggling to get into