"C. Sanford Lowe & G. David Nordley - The Small Pond" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lowe C Sanford)

everything I can to make you do that. I have no choice in this. I hope you
understand this. I am sorry.”
He heard his little speech on the radio as he said it; a distracting echo, but it
proved his system worked. Unless they had managed to deploy a very sophisticated
surveillance system on very short notice, they should think he was at the camp site
on the shore of the lake; he’d left a heater on there, and the radio would be coming
from there.
“David, this is Liz. I’m coming to get you. We’ve figured out a way to divert
the planetoid; a huge mesh net is on its way from Canning. It will probably work, but
if the planetoid breaks up in the net, some of it may get through. It’s too dangerous
to stay on the surface of Martin.”
David’s heart beat rapidly. There was hope. Then he thought again. What
proof did he have that anything was actually being done? They’d cut him off the net.
She could be lying. Why not? She would do anything to save her damn project.
“Liz,” he said. “That sounds very hopeful. Thank you for making the effort, if
it is true. But I must take the risk that it is not true or I give up all my leverage. Please
go back and get me after the impact is diverted.”
“David, you might be dead!”
“I know this. I have thought this through very carefully. It is my choice.”
“David, I am coming to get you. That is my choice.”
He could think of nothing to say to that. He quickly covered the distance to
the landing site and hid himself in a broken lava tube near the wreck. None too soon;
just as he settled in, he heard the sonic boom of the approaching shuttle, and soon
the glow of its engines lit up the landscape. He watched the bullet-shaped vehicle’s
landing gear extend as it set smoothly down, the hatch side turned mostly toward
him.
David agonized. But he would have to do what he had to do; he had come too
far to waver now. If Liz was lying to him, she had sealed her own fate as well.
As soon as the shuttle landed and Liz had popped the hatch, he opened his
comm line. “Liz, my camp is on the shore of the lake, about ten minutes walk from
here, uh, I mean from where your shuttle is coming down.”
“I see it, David. Please come meet me at the landing site. We’re doing
everything we can.”
He shook his head automatically, even though she couldn’t see him. “I cannot
take that chance. I am sorry. If you want to talk, come to the camp. We still have
several hours.”
Liz didn’t answer him. The hatch swung open and she descended, followed
by three black circular robots hovering on their fans. He could barely see them, but
this close he could hear them.
She strode off toward the camp, her path lit by a helmet light. The robots,
presumably invisible now, followed. He patted a device in his pocket; he had an
answer for those, but now was not the time to reveal it.
David judged the distance to the shuttle. He didn’t dare use the infrared to talk
now; Liz would pick that up in her helmet and immediately know what he was doing.
Would she suspect? Had she left a guard? The best strategy would be to approach
the shuttle normally. His box with the bomb was a standard sample box and should
be recognized as such.
He waited until she was halfway to the camp, then got up and walked as
calmly as he could to the shuttle. He opened the standard infrared channel for
robotic interface and positioned his body so the beam would not carry to Liz or his