"Harry Harrison - Deathworld 3" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

Deathworld 3

Harry Harrison



For

Kingsley and Jane
-gratefully



1

Guard Lieutenant Talenc lowered the electronic binoculars and twisted a
knob on their controls, turning up the intensity to compensate for the failing
light. The glaring white sun dropped behind a thick stratum of clouds, and
evening was close, yet the image intensifier in the binoculars presented a
harshly clear black-and-white image of the undulating plain. Talenc cursed
under his breath and swept the heavy instrument back and forth. Grass, a sea
of wind-stirred, frostcoated grass. Nothing.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't see it, sir," the sentry said reluctantly.
"It's always just the same out there."

"Well I saw it-and that's good enough. Something moved and I'm going to
find out what it is." He lowered the binoculars and glanced at his watch. "An
hour and a half until it gets dark, plenty of time. Tell the officer of the
day where I've gone."

The sentry opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it.
One did not give advice to Guard Lieutenant Talenc. When the gate in the
charged wire fence opened, Talenc swung up his laser rifle, settled the
grenade case firmly on his belt, and strode forth-a man secure in his own
strength, a one time unarmed-combat champion and veteran of uncounted brawls.
Positive that there was nothing in this vacant expanse of plain that he could
not take care of.

He had seen a movement, he was sure of that, a flicker of motion that
had drawn his eye. It could have been an animal; it could have been anything.
His decision to investigate was prompted as much by the boredom of the guard
routine as by curiosity. Or duty. He stamped solidly through the crackling
grass and turned only once to look back at the wire-girt camp. A handful of
low buildings and tents, with the skeleton of the drill tower rising above
them, while the cliff like bulk of the spaceship shadowed it all. Talenc was
not a sensitive man, yet even he was aware of the minuteness of this lonely
encampment, set into the horizon-reaching plains of emptiness. He snorted and
turned away. If there was something out here, he was going to kill it.