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

against the twin of the pillar they had crashed, he
saw Zul draw his knife and a man leap with the ease
of a trained street fighter from between two parked
flitters.

There were pedestrians, a crowd of them, gathering.
But until they knew that this was not some private
challenge-fight, none would call a patroller. By drawing
his belt knife instead of trying for a stunner, Zul had
labeled this a meeting-of-honor, unorthodox as its


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setting might be. And had not Troy been warned, he
might have hesitated to come to the other's assistance.

His numbed arm bothered him, and he rested the
barrel of the stunner on his knees to take aim against
the attacker. Knife blades flashed in the sunlight.
Zul, his back braced against the wrecked flitter, was
seemingly cornered and on the defensive from the
first.

Troy pressed the firing stud of his weapon, remem-
bering the long-ago training by Lang: "Point your
barrel as you would your finger, boy. Aim means more
than speed."

There was the faint "pssst" from the stunner. The
man fronting Zul wavered, slewed partly around, and
staggered back, bringing up against one of the parked
vehicles, shaking his head dazedly. But the small man
he had attacked did not try to follow up the advantage.
Troy tapped with his thumb, sending another charge
into the stunner.

He was just in time, for again that ear-torturing
wail sounded from the interior of the flitter, and the
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impact of warning reached him full blast. Instinctively
he hurled himself to the right. A knife struck the

pillar and clattered to the ground.
The man who had hurled it was holding back, but