"Chalker, Jack L - G.O.D. Inc 3 - The Maze in the Mirror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

six-year-old? "She was, but the doctor says she's going to be fine. She's been
worried sick over you, though, just like I have. Did they hurt you?"
The boy shook his head no. "Not really. They pushed me around some but that was
mostly at the start. After that they was pretty nice mostly. They gave me
Twinkles and hamburgers." The boy yawned, not from the gas but because he was
very tired, but some things couldn't wait.
"Well, all right, then. Listen, Dash, this is important. Were these people here
the same ones who took you from the house?"
"Our house?"
"Yes."
"Some. A couple, I think. Mostly I dunno."
"Look, they're all still knocked out now, but you think you could point to the
ones who were at the house?"
"I dunno. I'll try. I was kind'a sleepy, like now."
He named several of them but wasn't really sure how long they'd been with him,
but two, a big, tough-looking man and a short, wiry, effeminate-looking man he
was certain were there all the way. The big man was Fred and he was mean and
didn't talk much to Dash, but the small man was Alberto and he was very nice and
kind to the boy and had stood up for him when some of the others got a little
rough.
That was enough for now. They brought in a prison wagon and chained the men to
the inside before any of them might wake up, and Dash and Sam got into a big,
black Lincoln and they were off, even as the Company cleanup crew was coming in.
The cleanup crew was now the most vital concern of Markham and the Company as a
whole. They would remove any evidence of a higher technology, replace the motel
locks and even the doors and frames if need be, haul away the vans to a Company
shop that would restore them before turning them back in to the rental agency,
and go over both vans and rooms with a fine-tooth comb for anything evidentiary
either telling something about the men they captured or which had to be removed.
By late the next day, there would be no physical evidence at all that anything
had happened there except perhaps that the rooms would be even cleaner than
normal and there might be some fresh paint and plaster.
At the same time, a political cleanup crew was at work with the local
authorities-cops, the motel manager, you name it. Somebody from the local paper
had been tipped, probably by a cop, and it was easier to arrange for an
authentic cover story than to deny it all and have the press down on them with a
vengeance. The Company people, however, were very efficient, as Sam had good
reason now to know.
They had captured twelve heavily armed men and rescued a hostage and had done so
at the cost of one broken nose, said nose broken on one of the kidnappers who
hadn't had the good luck to go completely under.
There were, however, lots of interrogations to be done and tests to be made. For
one thing, even Dash would have to be microscopically examined and compared with
his data recordings. The mere fact that no world had ever been discovered other
than this one in which Sam and Brandy had gotten together, let alone had a kid,
was insufficient. You could take nothing for granted in the parallel world
business, and they wanted to make absolutely certain that this was no ringer,
even though Sam was positive that no kid would or even could fake this.
The captives were also microscopically examined using technology created for
this purpose, to see if any of them showed any signs whatever of having been