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

between twenty and forty of them. As far as he could see, they stood no chance at all against the enemy's
war machine.

"The machine's concentrating all its fire over there," Yvette pointed out quietly. "I could slip in
behind it and climb up one of the legs. If I can't break into the disk itself and take out some of the
operators, I've got enough explosives in my belt to knock out one of the joints and topple it over."

"Absolutely not," Lady A said. "We came here to observe, not fight in hopeless battles."

Jules decided to use his position as team leader to put in a word on his sister's behalf. "Maybe the
people who ran to the countryside can't help us, but these people have been battling the enemy face to
face. They can tell us what sorts of weaponry they have and what their tactics are. If we can link up with
them, and maybe capture some of the invaders for ourselves, we'll be ahead of the game."

"There are better ways of getting the information we need," Lady A insisted.

Jules nodded. "I'm sure there are. But none of them are available right now. Speed is the key to
this mission, as you've said more than once. We can't wait for opportunities to present themselves—we
have to make our own."

He turned to Yvette. "Go to it—but be careful. Bail out at the first sign of trouble."

Yvette gave him a brief nod and slipped from their hiding place, zigzagging her way across the
rubble-strewn street. She took every opportunity to stop behind some cover so her approach would not be
noticed.

The park in which the tower stood had been decimated by the initial bombardment and the current
fighting around it. There was no cover worthy of the name to hide Yvette from view once she crossed the
street. Steeling herself, she made a dash at full DesPlainian speed across the open ground, hoping there
would be no guns trained on her. The gamble paid off: She made it without incident to the base of one of
the tower's seven-story legs.

From this point it was simply a matter of climbing—a snap for an old circus trouper like Yvette
Bavol. The legs were bare metal structures—no attempt had been made to ornament their functional
design. The naked girders and bolts made easy handholds as Yvette scampered up the leg like a monkey
up a tree. Her only concern was that the tower would start walking again; anything approaching the speed
it had been moving before would surely dislodge her and send her plunging several stories to the ground.
Fortunately, the tower's operators seemed content with their strategic position and were not inclined to
move from it.

Jules and the others watched from their hiding place as Yvette made her daring climb. Jules would
have liked to be along with her, but knew that would be stretching their risks a little too far. Besides,
someone had to stay back and keep a rein on Lady A.

When Yvette was three-quarters of the way up, another factor entered the picture. Out of the sky,
seemingly from nowhere, swooped one of those strange aircraft the team had seen earlier. It ignored the
tower and made a strafing run at the resisters' hiding places. A combination of bombs and beams
hammered at the defenders' position. Some of them were forced to retreat, while others stubbornly held
their ground against the barrage.