"Williamson-DarkStarOne" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Jack)

"I think you are." A sharper tone. "Wake Mr. Hinch if you can. Inform him that
his orders are to turn back at once. And hold the line open. I want constant
contact."

"Okay sir."

Mondragon kept the headphones on, but the contact was broken. He heard Andersen
calling Hinch and then the whisper of the turbine as they pulled farther from
the barrier.

"Hold it!" Hinch's hoarse sardonic bark came close behind him. "If Mr.
Glengarth's still on the line, tell him I've been informed. Tipsy, maybe, but
not too drunk to run this bleedin' circus. We ain't going back."

Twisting Mondragon found Hinch behind him at the top of the cabin steps, gaunt
face flushed behind the straggle of beard, a pistol in his hand.

"?Que?" he whispered. "?Que quiere?"

"!Escuche!" A slurred command. "Get this! All three of you. To hell with Stecker
and the ship. We're going on to that bleedin' mountain. If there is a bleedin'
mountain --"

"Senor --" He had to catch his breath. "Senor Hinch, have you looked outside?"

"I see the cliff." Hinch was breathing hard. The pistol shook in his hand. "I
saw the bleedin' flash. Maybe meant to scare us off, but I don't scare. We'll
climb the bleedin' ice --"

"!Senor!" he begged. "!Cuidado con la pistola!"

"Cuidado yourself!" Hinch waved the gun. "I ain't borracho, and we ain't turning
back."

"I think we're in danger, sir," Andersen called, "if we ignore that signal --"

"We could die." Hinch laughed, a brief, harsh snort. "So what the bleedin' hell!
We're already done for, murdered by this crazy mission. We can die slow, of cold
and hunger here on the ice. Or faster, if that bleedin' scumbag Stecker gets us
back on his death-trap ship and shoots it off again to God knows what. I'll take
the ice gods, if you want to call 'em gods. No worse than Rip Steeker."

"Senor --" Mondragon watched the pistol and searched for words. "La Doctora
Virili says we need not die. She says we came to terraform the planet. She says
we have knowledge to keep us alive, on the ice or under it."

"Turned to bleedin' cannibals!"

"Creo que no, senor. I think we need not die. The engineers have technology for