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

'Ah, that is flierce, the Brazilian mead. Take it for yourself. There are little points of light in your eyes to match the gold of the drink.'
She suppressed a quick retort, lifted the drink to sip it, genuinely curious. She stopped with the glass tube almost at her lips as she caught Vierho staring at her hair. 'Is it really that color?' he asked.
Martinho laughed, a surprised and oddly affectionate sound. 'Ahh, Padre,' he said.
Rhin sipped the drink to cover a feeling of confusion, found the liquid softly sweet, filled with the memory of many flowers, and with a sharp bite beneath the sugar.
'But is it that color?' Vierho insisted.
Chen-Lhu leaned forward. 'Many Irish colleens have such red hair, Vierho. It's supposed to signify a wild temper.'
Rhin returned the drink to the table, wondering at her own emotions. She sensed a camaraderie between Vierho and his chief and resented the fact that she couldn't share it.
'Where next, Johnny?' Chen-Lhu asked.
Martinho darted a glance at his brother Irmandade, returned a hard stare to Chen-Lhu. Why does this official of the I.E.O. ask such a question here and now? he wondered. Chen-Lhu must know where next. It could not be otherwise.
'I'm surprised you hadn't heard,' Martinho said. 'This afternoon I bid in the Serra Dos Parecis.'
'By the great bug of the Mambuca,' Vierho muttered.
Anger showed in the sudden darkening of Martinho's face. 'Vierho!' he snapped.
Rhin stared from one to the other. A strange silence had settled over the table. She felt it as a tingling along her arms and shoulders. There was something about it that was fearful, even sexual ... and profoundly disturbing. She recognised the reaction of her body, hated it, knew she could not place its source with any precision this time. All she could say to herself was: This is why Chen-Lhu sent for me - to attract this Joao Martinho and manipulate him. I'll do it, but what I'll hate most is the fact that I'll enjoy it.
'But, Jefe,' Vierho said. 'You know yourself what was said about ... '
'I know!' Martinho barked. 'Yes!'
Vierho nodded, a look of pain on his face. 'They said it was ... '
'There are mutants, we know that,' Martinho said. And he thought: Why did Chen-Lhu force this disclosure now? To see me argue with one of my men?
'Mutants?' Chen-Lhu asked.
'We have seen what we have seen,' Vierho said.
'But the description of this thing is a physical impossibility,' Martinho said. 'It has to be a product of someone's superstition. That I know.'
'Do you, Jefe?'
'Anything that's there we can face,' Martinho said.
'What are you talking about?' Rhin asked.
Chen-Lhu cleared his throat. Let her see now the extremes to which our enemy will go, he thought. Let her see the perfidy of these bandeirantes. Then, when I tell her what she must do, she'll do it willingly.
'There is a story, Rhin,' Chen-Lhu said.
'Story!' Martinho sneered.
'Rumor, then,' Chen-Lhu said. 'Some of the bandeirantes of Diego Alvarez say they saw a mantidae three meters tall in the Serra Dos Parcels.'
Vierho leaned toward Chen-Lhu, face tense. The acid scar was pale on the bandeirante's cheek. 'Alvarez lost six men before he gave up the Serra. You know that, Senhor? Six men! And he ... '
Vierho broke off at the arrival of a squat, dark-skinned man in a stained bandeirante working smock. The man was round faced, with Indian eyes. He stopped almost behind Martinho, stood there waiting.
The newcomer bent close to Martinho, whispered.
Rhin could catch only a few of his words - they were very low and in some barbarous interlands dialect - something about the Plaza, the central square ... crowds.
Martinho pursed his lips, said, 'When?'
Ramon straightened, spoke somewhat louder. 'Just now, Jefe.'
'In the Plaza?'
'Yes - less than a block from here.'
'What is it?' Chen-Lhu asked.
'A namesake of this cabaret,' Martinho said.
'A chigger?'
'So they say.'
'But this area's Green,' Rhin said. And she wondered at her sudden feelings of dismay.
Martinho pushed himself up and away from the divan.
Chen-Lhu's face betrayed a strange watchfulness as he looked up at the bandeirante jefe.
'You will excuse me, please, Rhin Kelly?' Martinho asked.
'Where are you going?' she asked.
'There is work.'
'One chigger?' Chen-Lhu asked. 'Are you sure is isn't a mistake?'
'No mistake, senhor,' Ramon said.
'Is there no facility for taking care of such accidents, then?' Rhin asked. 'Obviously we've a stowaway that's come into the Green on some sort of cargo or ... '
'Perhaps not,' Martinho said. He nodded to Vierho. 'Get the men. I will need especially Thome for the truck and Lon to manage the lights.'
'At once, Jefe.' Vierho bounced up and headed across the room towards the other Irmandades.