"Alan Dean Foster - Flinx 16 - Snakes Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

introduce you to a reasonably honest outfitter."

They walked off down the street, conversing amiably, the dryzam trailing behind. The woman buying
jewelry from the stall next to the foodshop edged aside as the bulky beast of burden slid multiple hips
down the narrow avenue. She had the slim, lithe figure of an adolescent, but was a good deal older.
Flowing clothes obscured all skin save face and hands, which were the color of milk-rich fudge.

A diamond ornamented one pierced nostril. She turned to regard the receding procession with much
interest, robes of water-repellent silk shuffling like frozen wind about her. So intent was she on the two
retreating male figures that the jeweler was prompted to ask if anything was wrong.

"Wrong? No, no." She smiled at the man, teeth flashing whitely, bright enough to form two small
crescent moons in her face. She pointed absently at a pair of wormwood-and-onyx earrings. "I'll take
those. Deliver them to this address." She handed the jeweler a card on which was impressed her name, a
personal identification number, and the address in question.

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...n%20Foster%20-%20Flinx%2016%20-%20Snakes%20Eyes.htm (10 of 31)19-2-2006 17:10:40
 Foster, Alan Dean - Commonwealth 16 - Flinx - Snakes Eyes (SS) (v1.0)




While the jeweler hastened to process the transaction through his cardmeter she turned to the man
standing patiently nearby. He was short, no taller than she, but perhaps ten years older. Face and body
showed globules and bulges of fat. Their surfaces were taut, however, without age wrinkles or the true
signature of the hopelessly obese. The man simply had the physique of a baby never grown up.

"You heard everything, Wuwit?" inquired the woman Savaya.

He nodded once. "I did. I'll go get Michelos."

"No." She put out a hand to restrain him, then gestured down the street at the disappearing convoy.
"Follow that carnival. See where they go, learn who they talk to, stay with them. I'll find Michelos
myself." They parted.

Wuwit watched her progress for a moment, then turned and ambled off after the two men with a speed
startling to those not familiar with his abilities. One of the men, he'd noted, was old, the other much
younger.

They were an easy pair to trail inconspicuously, since the docile dragon's rump rose and swayed above
the ground. So intent was Wuwit on his assignment, however, that he failed to notice the tall, gangly or-
nithorpe pacing parallel to him on the other side of the street. Nor did the feathered alien notice Wuwit.

A rounded, swaybacked body was mounted on two long, feathered legs. These fitted into boots which
reached to the knobby knees. Those knees reached to a normal man's waist. A long thin neck ended in the
elongated skull, from which protruded a short, curved beak in front, ruffled plumage behind.

In addition to the boots, the creature wore a slickeirtic cape designed for his shape. A lightweight
garment that kept off the perpetual moisture of Moth's atmosphere, the slickertic did not cover the
headdress, a construction of blue-green-yellow foil which complemented the alien's natural gray-and-