"Andre Norton - Cat's Eye - uc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

eh?"

Troy refused to be drawn. He shrugged, not knowing
why the other was trying to bait him. Everyone knew
that Norden had been handed over to the Confederation,
that none of her former inhabitants could hope to
return to her plains.

"All right. If the assignor sent you, you're the best
it could find." Kyger arose from the enveloping embrace
14

of his eazi-rest. The yellow man slipped to his side.
"Zul will give you your orders. We are expecting a
shipment in on the Chasgar. You'll go to the dock
with Zul and do just as he tells you—no more, certainly
no less. Understand?" There was a flick of razor-sharp
whip in that. Troy nodded.

Zul was certainly not a talkative companion. He
merely beckoned Troy out through another door into a
courtyard. This, too, was sided with pens and cages,
but Troy was given no time to inspect their inhabitants.
Zul waved him to a waiting flitter. As Troy took his
place in the foreseat, the small man reached for the
controls and they lifted with practiced ease to the air
lanes. Zul circled, then headed them toward the west
and the spaceport.

There was more traffic aloft now, personal flitters,
heavier vans, and small flyers such as their own. Zul
slipped through the lanes with a maximum of speed
and a minimum of effort, bringing them down without
a jar on the landing strip behind the receiver station.
Again a jerk of thumb served to bring Troy, trailing
his guide, into one of the many entrances of the
clearance section. His small companion was well known
here, for he bypassed two barriers without explanation,
their guardians waving him on.

"Kyger's." Zul spoke at last, putting a claim disk
down before the man in charge of the third grill.

"Right section, third block—"

Now they were in a corridor with a wall on one side,
a series of bins, room size, on the other, each well
filled with shipping crates, bales, and containers. There
were men hauling these in and out, which testified
that the contents of the packages in this particular