"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 20 - Web of Sand" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

It drew her closer, naked feet padding over the tufted carpet,
her gown rustling as the fabric dragged over the surface of a low
table, small chimes spilling from disturbed bells. A
tintinnabulation she ignored as, halting, she stared at the
smooth curve of the plastic, the fury of the storm beyond.

The air, the dust, all were joined in seething turmoil. Winds
sweeping from the distant mountains, lifting sands from the
deserts, catching them, driving them in a composite whole.
Grains of silica, basalt, granite, manganese. Crystalline particles
formed of minute rubies, agates, diamonds, emeralds. The
detritus of ancient cataclysms which had taken the mineral
wealth of Harge and pulverized it and spread it wide and far to
be the sport of surging winds. Crystals each facet of which were
knives, each point a needle. Carried by the winds at fantastic
velocities, they scoured the world.

Nothing unprotected could live a moment in such a blast.
Even the toughest suit and thickest pane would fret and wear
and shred into particles. Cracks would form, widen, open to
expose the skin and flesh and muscle beneath. A moment and it
would be ripped away by the ravening fury of countless minute
teeth. Even now men lost in the storm could be dying, screaming
as the acid of the blast flayed them raw, turning them into
grinning parodies of men before even bone and teeth vanished
with the rest.

The thought created a tension in her loins and she shuddered,
drawing a deep breath, inflating her chest as she stared at the
fury beyond the window. The pane itself was unmarked,
protected from the scouring dust by an electronic field which
kept the particles at bay. An expensive installation but one
Yunus could afford. As he could afford so much.

She looked down and saw her hand, the fingers spread, the
skin pale in the soft light from the room. Yunus Ambalo, a
member of the Cinque; the five families which owned Harge. The
Ambalo, Yagnik, Khalil, Barrocca and Tinyeh owning water,
food, power, accommodation and transportation. On Harge you
lived by their sufferance or you didn't live at all.

The hand had closed into a fist, the nails digging into her
palm and in imagination she could feel that same hand closed
around her body, holding her, tightening, making her a helpless
prisoner of the Cinque. How long could she retain even a fraction
of personal integrity? How long before she turned into something
as coarse and crude as the girl who had served her?

Outside the dust turned black, lights brightening within the