"Chapter 03" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gordon Dickson - Forever Man)

fect cadence and rhyme with the earlier line.
"Le ten~ps a laiss6 ton manteau-de ven', ~ froidure, et
depluje..."
"It's no use," said Mary. "We'll have to get him back to
Earth and treatment before you'll be able to get through to
him."
"All right," said Jim. "Then we'll head-"
The moan of an interior siren blasted through his suit.
"Laagi!" yelped the voice of Fourth Helen. "Five bandits,
sector six-"
"Bandits. Two bandits, sector two, fifteen hundred kilome
ters-" broke in the voice of Lela".
Jim swore and slapped his fingers down on the buttons.
With all ships locked together, his phase-shift impulse was
sorted automatically through the computer center of each one,
so that they all shifted together in the direction and distance he
had programmed. There was the wrench of shift-feeling-and
sudden silence.
The siren had cut off. The voices were silent. Automatic
-dispersal had taken place, and the other four ships were
spreading out rapidly to distances up to a thousand kilometers
on all sides, their receptors probing the empty' space for half a
-light-year in each direction, quivering, seeking, while And-
Friend stayed locked to La Chasse Gallerie.
"Looks like we got away." Mary's voice was eerie in its
naturalness, breaking the stillness in Jim's headpiece. "Looks
like they lost us."
"The hell they did!" said Jim savagely. "They'll have un-
manned detector probes strung out all the way from here to the
Frontier. They know we're not going anyplace else."
"Then we better jump again-"
"Not yet! Shut up, will you!" Jim bit the words off hard at
his lips. "The more they collect to hit us with here, the more
we leave behind when we jump again. Sit still back there and
keep your mouth shut. You're a gunner now, not a talker."
"Yes sir." There was no mockery in Mary's voice. This
time Jim did not comment on the "sir."
The seconds moved slowly with the sweep hand of the
clock in front of Jim. The mind-unit had made its calculations
and was [eady to move. He waited. Inside the headpiece, his
face was dripping with perspiration. The blood creaked in his
ears-
Moan of siren!
"Laagi!" shouted Fair Maid. "Four bandits-"
"Bandits!"
"Bandits!"
Suddenly the helmet was full of warning cries from all the
ships. The telltale sphere in front of Jim came alive with the
green dots of laaagi ships, over and beyond the white dots of
his own Section.