"Herbert, Frank - The Green Brain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

'That we bandeirantes don't want to see a good thing end, that we're reinfesting the Green, breeding new insects in secret laboratories.'
'That rot!' Alvarez growled.
'Which bandeirantes are supposed to be doing this?' Vierho demanded. He scowled at Chen-Lhu, gripped the carbine as though ready to turn it on the I.E.O. official.
'Easy, Padre,' Alvarez said. 'The stories never say. It's always they or them - never names.'
Martinho looked toward the place in the lawn where the giant figure of a beetle had disappeared. He found this dalliance with talk far more alluring than the walk across the lawn to that place. The night air carried a sense of lowering menace and.., hysteria. And the oddest thing of all was the reluctance to take action that could be seen all around him. It was like the lull after a terrible battle in a war.
Well, it is a kind of war, he told himself.
Eight years they'd been fighting this war here in Brazil. The Chinese had taken twenty-two years, but they'd said it could be done here in ten. The thought that it might take twenty-two years here - fourteen more years - momentarily threatened to overwhelm Martinho. He felt a monstrous fatigue.
'You must admit odd things are happening,' Chen-Lhu said.
'That we admit,' Alvarez said.
'Why does no one suspect the Carsonites?' Vierho asked.
'A good question, Padre,' Alvarez said. 'They have big support, the Carsonites - all the holdout nations: the U.S. of A., Canada, the United Kingdom, Common Europe.'
'All the places where they've never had any real trouble with the insects,' Vierho said.
Oddly, it was Chen-Lhu who protested. 'No,' he said. 'The holdout nations don't really care - except that they're happy to see us occupied with this fight.'
Martinho nodded. Yes - that was what all the companions of his schooldays in North America had said. They couldn't care less.
'I am going over now and look in that hole,' Martinho said.
Alvarez reached out, took Vierho's carbine. He hung it on his good shoulder by the sling, took the control handle of the shield. 'I will go with you, Johnny.'
Martinho glanced at Vierho, saw the look of terrified relief in the man's face, returned his attention to Alvarez. 'Your arm?'
'I still have one good arm. What more do I need?'
'Travis, you stay close behind us,' Martinho said.
'My Security men have just arrived,' Chen-Lhu said. 'Delay a moment and we'll ring that place. I will tell them to bring shields.'
'It is wise, Johnny,' Alvarez said.
'We will go slowly,' Martinho said. 'Padre, return to the truck. Tell Ramon to bring it around the Plaza and up on to the edge of the lawn over there. Have the Hermosillo truck direct all its lights on to that place.' He nodded ahead of him.
'At once, Jefe.'
Vierho headed back for the truck.
'You will not disturb anything there?' Chen-Lhu asked.
'We're as anxious as you to find out what that is,' Alvarez said.
'Let's go,' Martinho said.
Chen-Lhu trotted off to the right where an I.E.O. field truck could be seen making its way through a side street. The crowd appeared to be giving trouble there, resisting efforts to expel them from the Plaza area.
Alvarez turned the control handle and the shield began crawling across the lawn.
In a low voice, Alvarez said, 'Johnny, why doesn't the doctor suspect the Carsonites?'
'He has a spy system as good as anything in the world,' Martinho said. 'He must know.' He kept his gaze on the disturbed patch of lawn ahead of them, that mysterious place beside the fountain.
'But what better way to sabotage us than to discredit the bandeirantes?'
'True, but I don't think Travis Huntington Chen-Lhu would make such a mistake.' And he thought: It is strange how that patch of lawn both attracts and repels.
'You and I have been rivals at the bid many times, Johnny. Perhaps we forget sometimes that we have a common enemy.'
'Do you name that enemy?'
'It's the enemy in the jungles, in the grass of the savannahs and under the ground. The Chinese took twenty-two years ... '
'Do you suspect them?' Martinho glanced at his companion, noting the glower of concentration of Alvarez's face. 'They will not let us inspect their results.'
'The Chinese are paranoid. They leaned that way before they ever collided with the Western world and the Western world merely confirmed them in this sickness. Suspect the Chinese? I don't think so.'
'I do,' Martinho said. 'I suspect everyone.'
A feeling of gloom overtook him at the sound of his own words. It was true - he suspected everyone, even Benito here, and Chen-Lhu ... and the lovely Rhin Kelly. He said, 'I think often of the ancient insecticides, how the insects grew ever stronger in spite of - or because of - the insect poisons.'
A sound behind them caught Martinho's attention. He put a hand on Alvarez's arm, stopped the shield, turned.
It was Vierho followed by a slavecart piled with gear. Martinho identified a long, pry bar there, a large body hood that must have been intended for Alvarez, packages of plastic explosive.
'Jefe ... I thought you would need these things.' Vierho said.
A feeling of affection for the Padre swept through Martinho and he spoke bruskly: 'Stay close behind and out of the way, you hear?'
'Of course, Jefe. Don't I always?' He held the body hood towards Alvarez. 'This I brought for you, Jefe Alvarez, that you might not suffer another hurt.'
'I thank you, Padre,' Alvarez said, 'but I prefer freedom of movement. Besides, this old body has so many scars, one more will make little difference.'
Martinho glanced around him, noted that other shields were advancing across the lawn. 'Quickly,' he said, 'we must be the first there.'
Alvarez rotated the control handle. Again their shield ground its way toward the fountain.
Vierho came up close beside his chief, spoke in a low voice: 'Jefe, there are stories back there at the truck. It is said that some creature ate the pilings from under a warehouse at the waterfront. The warehouse collapsed. People were killed. There is much upset.'
'Chen-Lhu hinted at this,' Martinho said.