Alice: The Girl From Earth - Булычев Кир. Страница 45

“Throw down your weapons.” The fat man ordered. “Well, who am I talking to?”

“Do what he says.” I whispered to Poloskov. Only Poloskov had a pistol with him.

Poloskov pulled the pistol from his holster and threw it on the floor. The pistol clattered loudly.

The net rose.

For several seconds, until our enemies arrived, I was able to look around. The trap into which our Pegasus had fallen was an enormous if low cage. Two ships occupied it, standing some distance apart, the Pegasus and the Blue Gull. We were flies trapped in the blinding floodlights on the floor of the enormous room between them.

I looked around for my friends. Poloskov was looking at our approaching enemies and his mouth closed into a fine line. Zeleny clenched his fists and stood so as to guard Alice’s back. Alice held close to me; on the other side the Empathicator, yellow from terror, huddled at my feet.

“So the birds have flown right into our trap.” Veselchak U said. “Most good.”

He was in a rather jovial mood, but Doctor Verkhovtseff, who had managed to change out of his space suit and even put his had back on his head, appeared distanced, his face immmoible like a mask, his eyes empty and lifeless.

Alice moved about two steps from me.

“Where are you going?” I asked

“I’m here.” Alice whispered.

Two men in black uniforms aimed their guns at us while Verkkhovtseff obeyed the fat man and came directly to us and grabbed the Captain’s pistol. Then he quickly searched us, running cold hands down our sides and pulling out our pockets.

“All in order.” He said quietly. “They have no more weapons.”

“And where could they get weapons?” Fat Man burst out laughing. “They’re butterfly collectors. And they didn’t even guess they were about to fall into our little trap. Just like this one did.” Veselchak U pointed a finger as thick as three fat sausages at the Blue Gull. “And you fell into our trap on your own! We didn’t even have to send out a false message!” He burst into loud laughter. Then he ordered: “Tie them up!”

Evidently the handcuffs had been prepared earlier. One of the men in black opened a shoulder back and pulled out a pack of shiny new handcuffs.

While he untied the pairs of handcuffs the fat man walked directly in front of me, poked me with a fat finger, and said:

“Well, you still don’t want to surrender the Blabberyap Bird, do you, Professor?”

“No.” I replied.

“Look at him!” The fat man turned toward Verkhovtseff. “He’s worried about the Blabberyap bird as if it were an old friend. Where is the bird now?”

“I don’t know.” I said, although I certainly knew the Blabberyap bird had remained on board the ship.

Evidently the Blabberyap was needed by Fat Man after all. He told Verkhovtseff:

“Go take a look at the Pegasus.”

Then he turned back to me and added:

“You will be punished for telling me an untruth, Professor. And very painfully. My aids can do it. But not now, no, not now. Put the handcuffs on them. Don’t trust a word he says.”

A man in a black uniform walked over to me and placed handcuffs on my wrists. They clicked into place. My hands were now bound.

“The next one.” Veselchak U ordered.

His assistant went over to Poloskov. His movements were so precise and he moved so exactly and methodically that I began to suspect he might be a robot.

“The next one.” The Fat Man said.

The handcuffs rattled on Zeleny’s wrists.

The assistant leaned over the Empathicator and stopped in indecision. The Empathicator had ten legs, and all were so think there was nowhere to put the handcuffs.

“Idiot!” The fat man said. “Put them on the girl!” He looked around. “Where is that darned girl?”

Alice was nowhere to be seen.

Chapter Twenty

In Captivity center

“Where is that unmentionable little girl?” Veselchak U pouted, an the smile vanished from his face, and it was odd to see how his short, fat hands moved and fussed separately from the rest of his body.

“What little girl?” One of the black uniforms asked.

“There was a little girl here!” The fat man answered. “They called her…. Oh what did they call her?” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a note pad and sounded the letters aloud: “A-L–Ice. Where is Al-ice?” The second time he spoke he was looking at me.

“What Al Ice?” I asked as calmly as possible. At the same time I would have liked to have struck myself in the head in bewilderment how had she managed to get away? We were standing right in the open; there was no where she could have hidden herself.

“There was a small female child.” The Fat Man insisted. “I saw her. Didn’t you see her?” He asked Verkhovtseff, who just stood there, shrugged, and looked like he was sleeping with open eyes.

The man in black who had gone into the Pegasus after the Blabberyap Bird returned; he carried the bird, grasping it around the legs; the bird’s head swung back and forth and nearly reached the floor.

“Ah, you found it.” The Fat Man was delighted. “Rip off its head.”

“What?” The other man asked.

“The head, I say, the head; rip it off. We don’t need it any longer.”

“You’ll do no such thing!” I was horrified. “You can’t kill the Blabberyap bird. It may be the very last Blabberyap bird in existence.”

In desperation the Empathicator turned blue and rushed toward the Blabberyap bird on its thin legs, hoping, evidently, to set the bird free. But Veselchak U had noticed and burst out laughing.

“And as for you!” The Fat Man said, turned somewhat gracefully for such a fat man, and tripped the Empathicator with one leg.

The Empathicator collapsed and turned black from shame.

“Well,” The Fat Man said, “Why are you wasting time. I’ve already told you we no longer need the bird. Rip it’s head off.”

I don’t know if the Blabberyap understood the Fat Man or not, but, held firmly in the hand of the black clad pirate, the bird began to recite in an unknown voice:

“The Blabberyap bird is protected by the laws of the planet Blooke as an extremely rare and interesting creature. The hunting of the Blabberyap bird is forbidden, and violators of this law will suffer fines and social disgrace.”

“Your goose is cooked anyway!” Veselchak U roared. “And our hands are full enough without him!”

Suddenly something completely inexplicable transpired. The man in the black uniform lifted the Blabberyap bird high in order to grasp its neck, but as soon as he reached out his hand he suddenly lost his balance and fell with a crash to the floor, shouting from surprise, and released the Blabberyap bird. The Blabberyap clutched the air with its wings and flapped its way to the ceiling.

“Shoot!” The fat man shouted, grabbing for his pistol. Shots rang out. One or two blaster bolts almost hit the Blabberyap bird, but it twisted and turned in the air and vanished into the distance, to the cavern’s darkened end.

The men in black started to run after the Blabberyap bird, but Veselchak U stopped them.

“There’s no where it can run to now. Let it go, idiots! You, why did you fall?

“I didn’t fall.” The man in the back uniform said. “I was pushed.”

“Silence!” The fat man shouted to everyone; his jello cheeks shuddered. “Stop your excuses or I’ll push you down myself and then you won’t get up ever again! Don’t bother to chase after him. The bird’s lost in the tunnels now, and we don’t have too much time. we have other business.”

The fat man turned to the silent, dead starship that was the Blue Gull, and asked aloud, as though the ship could hear him:

“You hear me?”

The ship didn’t answer.

“Okay, so don’t say anything.” The fat man said. “It doesn’t matter. I know you can hear us. You’ve been sitting there and observing, thinking, what did I drag the Pegasus in here for? I dragged it in her to force your surrender now.”