"Brian Lumley - E-Branch 1 - Defilers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

I'm bringing the


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NECROSCOPE: DEFILERS
urgency home to you, for it's been with me all of that time! And if you don't believe me, well
just take a look at my hair!" There was no humor this time, faked or for real, in Trask's tone.
"Oh, I know how hard you've all been working," he continued, "using every possible means to track
these creatures down,- we've put every spare moment into it, and we've frequently neglected other
tasks to stay focussed on this one job. So when I say 'three years of nothing' it's not to
belittle anyone but to point up my own frustration. But now it's more than just frustration, and a
whole lot more than simple anxiety for the world at large. For now I'm also anxious-deadly afraid-
for you, me, us.
"Why? Well, let's go back to square one:
"Malinari knows about us. He knows now for sure that we've been looking for him all this time, and
that we're not going to stop. And if he's in contact with the others, they know it, too. But if
you've read the files on the Yulian Bodescu business all of thirty-odd years ago-and if you
haven't, I suggest you do it now-you'll know what that means. It may well be that from now on the
Wamphyri won't be so happy just sitting around waiting for us to come looking for them, but
instead may come looking for us!
"I'm just about finished. But starting right here and now, I want extra effort, people. I want
daily think-tanks, and more time spent at your machines and in your minds. Put your gadgets to
their full use, and likewise your ghost talents. We have to find Malinari again, and Vavara and
Szwart, and we have to find them soon, before those extrap computers are shown to have been
correct. For remember, our three years are up!
"And one last thing. I want extra vigilance from everyone. Not for me but for you. And especially
in the dead of night. . ."
As the espers filed out into the corridor and on to their workplaces, and the techs went back to
their viewscreens and computers, Trask stood in the doorway and stopped his joint Seconds-in-
Command, lan Goodly and David Chung, telling them, "Come and talk to me in my office."
And when they were there: "I've pretty much left you alone since we got back," he told them. "No
duties, and no additional pressures. That's because of all our people you two have enough on your
plates already. David, although I have two other locators-Bernie Fletcher being the better of the
two-with all due respect, they can't hold a candle to you. And lan, our other precogs are precogs
in name only. Mainly hunchmen, they're good at making clever guesses, at seeing how things are
going to add up. But since we have machines that can do that, their only advantage is they don't


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require programming. So as usual, you two are my main men. Our telepaths aren't in short supply,-
it seems to me Liz Merrick is coming along just fine, and that's despite this sudden 'setback'
with Jake Cutter, which-"
"Which you're not buying?" lan Goodly, tall and skeletally thin, and looking like nothing so much
as an out-of-work undertaker, raised a thinly etched, questioning eyebrow.

Trask shook his head. "No, I'm not. Liz-. I read her like a book-and I also read some of the looks
she was giving Jake in the Ops room. She thinks he's been stalling, keeping her out of his mind.
And as for Jake: well, I can't any longer read him at all! So it's like I suspected: he doesn't