"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 9 - The Omicron Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

That made a certain amount of sense—but Jules had learned to be cautious whenever anything
related to Lady A made sense. "What if something should happen to you while you're off by yourself?"

Lady A gave him a cold smile. "You needn't worry about that, Comrade Wombat. I've always
been quite good at looking out for myself."

And without giving him a chance to argue further, Lady A slipped out the door and was gone,
leaving Jules alone. He was upset, and knew he shouldn't be. What she'd said made perfect sense. They
were in a hurry on this mission, and as long as she didn't need to sleep there was no reason why she
shouldn't do some independent exploring—as long as she shared her findings with the Empire team
afterwards. At any rate, there was nothing Jules could have done to stop her short of using his blaster. Like
it or not, he'd have to learn to trust the woman who was the Empire's archenemy.

***

The night passed without incident. Lady A returned at sunrise with a pleasant surprise—a large
groundcar capable of holding them all in some comfort. "At least we won't have to wear ourselves out
with long hikes any more," she said.

"I'd begun to wonder whether there were any cars left in town," Fortier said.

"I found this in a garage for repairs. I spent most of the night fixing it up for us."

"So now you're a mechanic, too," Yvette cracked.

Lady A looked at her unflinchingly. "When you've lived as long as I have, you learn a lot of
things."

"Well, I'm glad we won't have to walk," Tatiana spoke up in defense of her boss.

"Any sign of the enemy?" Jules asked quickly, hoping to break up the growing animosity.

"No, nor any traces of the natives. The town's been deserted, as far as I can tell." Lady A was all
business again. "This is consistent with what my informant told me. He said everyone was running away
from the cities, hoping to hide out in the countryside."

"Perhaps we should try to track some of them down," Ivanov said. They might give us eyewitness
accounts of what happened."

Lady A shook her head. "We know what happened. We want to know what will happen. The
people hiding in the country can't help us do that. We have to find the invaders and infiltrate them to learn
their plans."

They went back to the restaurant for a quick breakfast, and then set out once again. Lady A drove
the large groundcar at speeds that made even Jules and Yvette breathless. The conspiracy's leader relied on
the super-swift reflexes of her robot body to maneuver the car at a rate no flesh-and-blood human would
safely attempt. They were out of the small town in no time, cruising down the paved road toward the next
village.

A couple of times they thought they spotted motions along the side of the road, people running