"Ahern, Jerry - Survivalist 003 - The Quest" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ahern Jerry)

The house was twenty yards ahead, she judged, and she quickened her pace. She saw the window clearly, a small porch and side door near it. She stopped at the base of the low steps, forced one leg, then the other, then again and again, and she was standing, swaying on the porch.

She kicked at the door and the door opened. A young man with a shotgun in his hands stood framed in the blinding yellow light from the kitchen beyond, a woman in a house dress standing behind him.

Sarah Rourke gasped, "Aunt Mary, I brought you Millie Jenkins."

There was heat from the kitchen, and the warm dry air made her start to feel faint.

She heard a woman's voice shout, "Get out of my way! Her baby!"

Sarah started to fall forward, felt a man's rough hands catch at her and Annie swept from her arms as she sank to her knees.

Chapter 12.

Rourke sat at the kitchen counter, staring into the empty great room, sipping at his own strong black coffee. He had arisen early, Rourke time of eleven A.M. He had cleaned the guns, including Ruben-stein's High Power and MP-40, then performed the necessary maintenance on the liberated Harley Low Rider, and checked his own machine.

He had showered and changed. Next he had gotten out the Lowe Alpine Systems Loco pack, the kind used by search and rescue teams, to Rourke's thinking the perfect all-around pack with an integral frame. He had put off loading it, being hungry. He stared at the waterfall and the pool, wondering what Sarah and the children would say when they first saw the retreat, if they ever would see it. He scratched the last thought; he would find them and bring them back, bring them home. They would see it. He imagined the children playing in the shallow pool beneath the falls.

He poured another cup of coffee, working with pencil and paper to list what he would bring. He would leave soon to scout the area for Soviet and brigand activity and pick up the trail of Sarah and the children. He noted down items on the list: both of the Detonics pistols, the small Musette bag with spare magazines and ammo, the Bushnell 8 x 30 armored binoculars, the big, handmade Chris Miller Bowie knife. He stopped and looked up. Rubenstein entered the great room from the side bedroom where he'd been sleeping.

"Hello, Paul, you trying for an endurance record?" Rourke glanced at his Rolex. Rubenstein had retired fourteen hours earlier.

"The first time I figured somebody wasn't going to shoot me in the middle of the night or something. Sorry."

"No need to be. Have some coffee." Rourke answered. Rubenstein ascended the three stone steps into the kitchen. "There's orange juice in the refrigerator. Just look around and fix yourself some breakfast."

"Orange juice?" Rubenstein asked, his eyes wide behind his glasses.

"Yeah, frozen from concentrate." Rourke thought of something else to add to the list: one of the Harry Owens barrel inserts for the Detonics so he could fire .22 rimfires if he potted a rabbit or something.

"John?" Rubenstein began.

"I don't know when I'm leaving, soon, though, but I won't be out long this first trip, so you just take it easy."

"My parents, I want to go down to St. Petersburg, see if there still is a St. Petersburg, see if they're alive."

"I know," Rourke said, then smiled at the younger man standing across the counter from where Rourke sat. "I'll miss you, Paul. I'll always count you my best friend, "

"Listen, if, ahh, " Rubenstein stammered.

"Take whatever you need to get there and stay alive. I've got plenty and I can get more."

"No, I didn't, I mean, if they're dead, would you, "

"My home, " Rourke gestured to the cavern walls and ceiling, "is your home, mi casa es su casa, amigo. Yeah, I'd like it if .things work out that way. And for your sake I hope they don't, but I'd like it if you came back. I could use your help finding Sarah and the children; the kids could use an uncle."

"John, I, "

"Don't. You can't leave for a while, remember, I'm a doctor? You need about a week of rest before those wounds will be healed enough for you to travel hard. I want to teach you a few things before you go anyway: couple of tricks that might help you stay alive. Give you a few things, a good knife, some maps, a good compass, show you how to use it, show you how to take care of your bike. You know some of that already anyway."