"Philip E. High - The Time Mercenaries" - читать интересную книгу автора (High Phillip E)

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The Time Mercenaries
by Philip E. High
Chapter One
THE SUBMARINE crept through the water with the stealth of her kind
but without high drama. This was routine, a normal return after a normal
exercise in peacetime.

It was a late December afternoon, with the coming night forming
shadows between the wave crests and a few snow flakes drifting down
from the dark sky.

Beneath the water, Randall said, "Up periscope," and sighed, pressing
his face to the rubber covered eyepieces as the instrument rose.

Happy days! Home for Christmas! Wonderful—if you had a tolerable
home. He was pleased for the men, of course, but for his own part he
would rather have remained at sea.

Before the periscope broke surface, however, his thoughts were
interrupted. Above the normal noises of the vessel was another sound
which would have been meaningless to the inexperienced but to Randall
spelled danger. In wartime he had heard that sound too often and, on
many occasions, for far too long.

As the periscope finally broke surface, he swung the instrument
desperately, searching for the cause of the sound. The area should be
navigationally clear and kept clear on Admiralty orders but…
 "Dive, dive, dive!" He heard his own voice shouting the order, felt his
palm come down on the klaxon but he was aware of a curious feeling of
detachment, as if someone else had given the order.

A destroyer! There shouldn't be a destroyer within fifty miles! He had
caught only a brief glimpse of the sharp gray bows hurling back the sea in
twin white crests but she had been pushing it close to forty-five knots.
Worse, she had been coming straight at them.

They could all hear it now—Get this blasted tub down!—faces shiny and
tense, eyes fixed and unmoving.

Sound! The express train sound of a destroyer racing through the
water.