"George Zebrowski - The Star Web" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zebrowski George)

land of cold.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!"

Obrion, Lena and Rassmussen got up and turned to face whatever was coming down the curving
corridor after them.

"It was louder," Lena said.

For a few moments Juan heard only their breathing, and even that grew quieter as they waited. The
passage seemed to be filled with a blue mist.

Footsteps.

"Juan, what could it be?" Lena whispered.

Obrion shook his head, motioning her to be silent.

Rassmussen came up and stood at his left, readying himself. Obrion slipped off his pack and placed it at
his feet. Rassmussen did the same. They had no weapons except their bare hands.

At the bend of the passage two figures appeared in silhouette, coming partially into view and stopping,
two cutouts made of black paper, standing perfectly still…

Then Obrion noticed that they were growing larger, shadows coming forward to engulf them, threatening
as if in a bad dream. This is the real world, he said to himself silently; but all the events here were
fantastic. The structure he was in was fantastic, yet cer-tainly real; its very reality seemed to promise that
the store of the fantastically real was far from exhausted. Slowly Obrion walked forward to meet the
shadows.

Chapter Two
The Seekers
The shadows seemed to retreat as he approached them.

"Juan!" Lena shouted with concern in her voice.

Suddenly the shadows dissolved into two human figures. The one on the right was tall, with blonde hair
and blue eyes. He was stocky even for a man wearing a snowsuit. The man next to him was middle sized,
with graying brown hair and a familiar set of bushy eyebrows, their brown wires still untouched by gray.

"Titus Summet!" Obrion shouted. "What are you doing here?" The anger rose up in him. "Do you realize
what your intruding has just cost us—we've lost Malachi—"

"Ivan Dimitryk, this is Juan Obrion—¦"

"Titus, there's no time to stand and chat. You helped cause a serious accident."

"Where?" Juan saw the frightened smile on the UN Director's face.

"Come see."