"08 - Disaster (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hubbard L. Ron)

They spaced out to the right and left.
They dropped into cover.
Stabb had slid into the pilot seat. He was twisting scope dials. He had it on body heat.
A target to the right of the roadhouse.
The pilot furthest from us fired.
A heat target to the left. The furthest pilot fired again.
A heat target much further to the left.
The pilot began to fire on automatic.
Suddenly he let out a shriek.
He leaped into the air.
The whole hip area vanished!
The other pilot was firing hysterically.
Heat target after heat target was popping up all over the field.
Frantically he tried to zero in on them.
Abruptly he screamed and leaped up into the air.
His head and torso disintegrated!
"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" cried Stabb.
He was in the local-pilot seat.
I leaped to the star-pilot seat.
Stabb was pulling levers and pushing buttons.
NOTHING HAPPENED!
We were earthbound!
The tug controls wouldn't operate!
Stabb's eyes glazed.
Then he stood up. He looked at me. "You led us into a trap, Officer Gris!" he snarled. "And I'll be dead in minutes. But I've got just one more job to do." He was reaching to his belt and withdrawing a knife and from the way he looked at me, I knew what he intended. He was going to kill me!
I grabbed at my control star. I pressed the top prong, that should have given him an electric shock.
NOTHING HAPPENED!
I hit the center and pressed the top again. It should have thrown him into a trance.
NOTHING HAPPENED!
"Lombar Hisst," said Captain Stabb, "gave me orders that if you fouled up I was to kill you out of hand."
THE UNKNOWN ASSASSIN HAD BEEN CAPTAIN STABB!
He raised the blade to plunge it into my chest.
The expression on his face froze.
He suddenly folded up over a pilot seat, a long Knife Section knife protruding from his back!
Someone had thrown it through the airlock!

Chapter 3

Footsteps.
Somebody was coming.
I was trying to get at my gun.
"Just sit there quietly, Gris. I can see in there but you can't see me."
HELLER'S VOICE!
His ghost!
Oh, Gods. I began to shake with every bone.
"Unfasten that gunbelt and throw it out the door."
Moaning, I did just that.
"Put your hands high in the air."
I did that quickly. I was facing front. I did not dare turn and look. I did not know what seeing a ghost would do to my psyche.
A light footstep behind me.