"David Gerrold - Chtorr 1 - A Matter for Men" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gerrold David)

He started to scramble over the top
"Hold it-" That was Louis; Duke paused. "I thought I saw something move-that stand of trees."
Larry focused the binoculars. "Yeah," he said, and handed them up to Duke, who scrambled around to
get a better view. He studied the blurring shadows for a long moment; so did I, but I couldn't tell what
they were looking at. Duke slid back down the slope to rest again next to Larry.
"Draw straws?" Larry asked.
Duke ignored him; he was somewhere else. Someplace unpleasant.
"Boss?"
Duke came back. He had a strange expression-hard-and his mouth was tight. "Pass me the piece" was all
he said.
Shortly unshouldered the 7mm Weatherby he had been carrying all morning and afternoon, but instead of
passing it over, he laid it down carefully in the grass, then backed off down the slope. Louis followed him.
I stared after them. "Where're they going?"
"Shorty had to take a leak," snapped Larry; he was pushing the rifle over to Duke.
"But Louis went too-"
"Louis went to hold his hand." Larry picked up the binoculars again, ignoring me. He said, "Two of 'em,
boss, maybe three."
Duke grunted. "Can you see what they're doing?"
"Uh uh-but they look awfully active." Duke didn't answer.
Larry laid down the binoculars. "Gotta take a leak too." And moved off in the direction of Shorty and
Louis, dragging Duke's pack with him.
I stared, first at Larry, then at Duke. "Hey, what's-"
"Don't talk," said Duke. His attention was focused through the long black barrel of the Sony
Magna-Sight. He was dialing windage and range corrections; there was a ballistics processor in the
stock, linked to the Magna-Sight, and the rifle was anchored on a precision uni-pod.
I stretched over and grabbed the binoculars. Below, the little girl had stopped skipping; she was squatting
now and making lines in the dirt. I shifted my attention to the distant trees. Something purple and red was
moving through them. The binoculars were electronic, with automatic zoom, synchronized focusing, depth
correction, and anti-vibration; but I wished we had a pair with all-weather, low-light image-amplification
instead. They might have shown what was behind those trees.
Beside me, I could hear Duke fitting a new magazine into the rifle.
"Jim," he said.
I looked over at him.
He still hadn't taken his attention from the sight. His fingers worked smoothly on the controls as he locked
in the numbers. The switches made satisfyingly solid clicks. "Doesn't your bladder need emptying too?"
"Huh? No, I went before we left-"
"Suit yourself." He shut up and squinted into his eyepiece. I looked through the binoculars again at the
purple things in the shadows. Were those worms? I was disappointed that they were hidden by the
woods. I'd never seen any Chtorrans in the flesh.
I covered the area, hoping to find one out in the open-no such luck. But I did see where they had started
to dam the stream. Could they be amphibious too? I sucked in my breath and tried to focus on the forest
again. Just one clear glimpse, that's all I wanted
The CRA-A-ACK! of the rifle startled me. I fumbled to refocus the binoculars-the creatures still moved
undisturbed. Then what had Duke been firing at-? I slid my gaze across to the enclosure-where a small
form lay bleeding in the dirt. Her arms twitched.
A second CRA-A-ACK! and her head blossomed in a flower of sudden red-
I jerked my eyes away, horrified. I stared at Duke. "What the hell are you doing?"
Duke was staring intently through the telescopic sight, waiting to see if she would move again. When she
didn't, he raised his head from the sight and stared across the valley. At the hidden Chtorrans. A long
time. His expression was . . . distant. For a moment I thought he was in a trance. Then he seemed to