"Alan Dean Foster - Interlopers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

slight depression from which it had been removed. "I haven't got another suitable box or any more bubble
wrap here, and it's getting dark. We'll come back for it to-morrow."
Her eyebrows rose slightly. "We? This is your dig." She nodded briskly to her left. "Mine's over there, with
Marie-Therese, at the base of the serpent wall."
He protested. "You found this. It's unusual, and you're entitled to the credit."
Her head turned slightly to one side as she gazed up at him, carefully placing her brushes back in her shirt
pocket. "Okay, then. `We' it is. I'll come over early and we can pack it up together."
"Good. That's fair." Her acquiescence pleased him for reasons that he did not elucidate to himself. "Walk
back to camp?"
"We'd better." She scanned the darkening sky specu-latively. "Harbos won't wait five minutes before sending
someone to look for us if we're late. Then we'll get chewed out for wasting camp resources, et cetera."
"Give him credit." Cody's long legs made easy work of earthen steps his companion had to negotiate with
care. "We haven't lost anybody on this dig yet."
"Sometimes I'd like to get lost"
Joining him on the surface, she studied the surrounding mountains. In the distance, smoke rose from the
cooking fires of small, vertically challenged farms. No contrails marred the pristine purpling sky. Northern
Peru did not lie at the intersection of any major transcontinental jet routes, and there was virtually no local air
traffic. A silence that was largely extinct elsewhere in the world stalked the immense mountain valleys like
some vast, nebulous, prehistoric visitant.
"Me too." Together they followed the trail through the grass that led toward camp, dodging around the huge
trees
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that grew out of the citadel's soil-cloaked foundation. Around them, the circular walls of empty buildings
turned single doorways to the sun, and the rectangular pyramid of the recently identified royal quarters cast
its long, broad shadow on their progress.
The narrow defile, barely wide enough for one person at a time to squeeze through, cut steeply downward
through the hundred-foot-high wall. Where it opened onto the rocky, grass-covered slope it was still just wide
enough for two men to enter abreast. Eminently defensible against an attacking enemy, it made the immense
stone walls that flanked the opening seem even higher and more impressive than they were.
Turning to their right, they followed the trail that had been etched into the slope along the base of the wail,
careful to keep it close at hand. Wander too far away and a thousand-foot drop waited to greet the indifferent.
Ahead, the flicker of lanterns coming to life began to dance within the intensifying darkness. There were more
than twenty tents for the field team, plus additional lean-tos and makeshift shelters for the native help. By far
the largest canopy, a substantial, well-anchored sweep of tough jungle-resistant weave, served as dining
room, lecture hall, library, and recreation area. Another, slightly smaller, housed the field lab.
"Hungry?" he asked her. "I'm always hungry, Cody."
He tripped over the compliment before he realized it. "I've seen you eat, and I wonder where you put it." "Up
here." She tapped the side of her head. "Mental exertion burns a lot of calories." In the twilight, her smile
shimmered like one of the approaching lanterns. "You don't exactly starve yourself."
"When you grow up always hungry, you get in the habit of eating anything and everything that's offered to
you." Espying a long, twisting shape on the trail ahead of them, he hesitated only an instant before resuming
his stride. In this part of the world, a smart hiker was wary even of fallen branches. Anything with multiple
curves demanded a second look.
Her smile faded away and her eyes locked on his as best they could in the gathering darkness. "I don't know
much about you, Cody. You're friendly, you'll stop work to chat with anyone, but you never talk about
yourself." In the creeping shadows her slight shrug was barely perceptible. "This is only my second dig.
Maybe that's the normal condition for more advanced field associates like yourself. I don't know. Or maybe
it's just this place." A casual sweep of one hand encompassed mountains, valleys, and the citadel wall that
towered skyward on their right. "Up here, everyone tends to focus on dead people."
"There's not much to know," he began, and for the next hour proceeded to give the lie to his own claim of