"Davis, Jerry - A Long Curved Blade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

the ground hugging her knees and crying. In front of her was the
gory mess that had been a colonist boy, about 11 standard years
old. Doug recognized him, he remembered giving the child a candy
bar, and was then chewed out by Cromwell, Leo, and his own wife
for "introducing alien food into their diet" and "interfering"
with their studies.
"The attack was here?" Doug asked. "Inside?"
Several of the colonists nodded. One, who was called Jahk,
pointed to planetary west and said, "Th'skike it dug right through
th'floor fence 'n right there."
"Show me."
He trotted with several men to the hole where the skike had
entered and then exited after the kill. The colonists had covered
the ground of their village with a tight crisscrossing of wood
everywhere inside the fence, and the skike had dug up underneath
and broke its way through. It was a big one, bigger than the one
that usually haunted this area. Doug set his rifle to scan the
tunnel, and followed its path to the edge of the fence and beyond.
"It's a short tunnel," he told Jahk. "It ends right out there."
"Th'other end we'll go 'n we'll wait there," Jahk said. He
was armed with a beautifully crafted crossbow with deadly
obsidian­tipped arrows. Doug followed him and the other colonists
through a gate and out to the hole, where they stood with weapons
pointing.
Doug was fiddling with the knobs on his scanner. "It's not in
there," he said. He took a few steps to the edge of the jungle,
scanning. "Out there," he said, his voice hushed. "About thirty
meters."
"You c'n see it?" Jahk asked him.
"My machine can. It's out there, not moving."
"It listens s'nd smells us," Jahk said. "Th'skike is safen 'n
'n 'n th'jungle."
"It thinks it's safe." Rifle forward, Doug pushed his way
into the foliage. "I'm going to kill the thing. This time I am
going to kill it." He ducked his head under a branch, moving
forward, the tart scent of sap burning his nostrils. The colonists
were right behind him, following close.
The beast heard them coming and retreated. Doug watched it
with the scanner, creeping forward, breathing shallow. This was
the skike's environment, the skike's territory. Even with his
energy weapon and his motion scanner Doug knew he was at a
disadvantage here. This beast weighed at least one standard ton, a
multi­legged, twelve­eyed creature with a large brain and quick
reflexes. The colonist's name for the creature was a perversion of
the English word "scythe" ­­­ two of its forelegs were
scythe­shaped blades a good 1.2 meters long, double edged and
razor sharp.
Doug reached a clearing and stopped. The colonists behind him
stopped and spread out, weapons drawn and ready. The beast was a
mere 20 meters ahead, invisible in the foliage. Doug braced