"Vance, Jack - Gaean Reach - Demon Princes 02 - The Killing Machine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

through all the atoms of ship and Gersen himself: a sound to set
the teeth on edge, but which perhaps wasn't even real.

The old Model 9B coasted through space. Nearby hung Bis-
som's End-Bad World. It was a smallish planet, cold at the poles,
with a chain of low mountains forming a cincture of the equator,
like a weld joining the two hemispheres. To north and south ran
belts of sea, shallowing somewhere near 50 degrees latitude to bay-
ous and jungles, beyond which were swamps and morasses all the
way to the permafrost.

On a windy plateau sat the town Skouse, an irregular huddle of
dingy stone buildings. Gersen was puzzled. Why would Mr. Hos-
kins want to come to Bissom's End? Far more pleasant refuges
existed- Brinktown was almost gay.. . . But he was taking too much
for granted: Mr. Hoskins might never come near Bissom's End,
with the whole mission a mare's nest; indeed, Zaum had emphasized
as much.

Gersen examined the planet under the macroscope, finding lit-
tle of interest. The equatorial mountains were dusty and barren,
the oceans were gray and mottled with the shadows of low scudding
clouds. He turned his attention back to Skouse, a town of perhaps
three or four thousand population. Nearby was a scorched field
bordered by sheds and warehouses; evidently the spaceport. No-
where were luxurious mansions or castles to be seen, and Gersen
remembered that the Windles inhabited caves in the mountains
behind the town. A hundred miles to east and west, evidences of
habitation finally dwindled to wilderness. There was a single other
town, beside a dock extending into the North Ocean. Nearby was
a metal-processing plant, so Gersen deduced from slag tailings and
several large buildings. Elsewhere the planet showed no signs of
human occupation.

If he could not visit Skouse overtly, he must do so surrepti-
tiously. He picked out an isolated ravine, waited till evening shad-
ows crossed the area, then settled as swiftly as possible.

He spent an hour adjusting to the atmosphere, then stepped
out into the night. The air was cool; like that of almost every planet
it had a distinctive tang, to which the nostrils quickly become
dulled: in this case a bitter chemical exhalation mixed with some-

THE KILLING MACHINE

179

thing like burnt spice, the one apparently derived from the soil, the
other from the native vegetation.