"02 - Birth of an Age" - читать интересную книгу автора (BeauSeigneur James)

"Mine says the same thing," said Jody MacArthur, one of the secretarial staff who worked for Decker.

"Great!" said Jackie. "Where shall we go?"

"Well, while you two are off on your journey, I'm going to be here spending my winnings from the lottery," said Debbie Marz, Decker's lead administrative assistant.

"Why? What does yours say?" Jody asked.

"It says, 'A small investment could result in major returns.' And my horoscope said that today is a good day to take a risk. It sounds to me like it's a perfect day to buy a lottery ticket."

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28 Birth of an Age

"I'll go with you," Decker said. "You don't mind if I play the same numbers, do you?"

"What, and have to split the winnings'? Sorry, sir; you're on your own."

"What does yours say, Decker?" Jackie asked.

"It says, 'You like Chinese food.'"

"No, really," Jackie laughed. Decker handed her the fortune and she read it. "He's right," she told the others at the table.

"Well, it was you who picked Chinese," Debbie Marz commented.

The weather seemed particularly agreeable as they left the restaurant. The bright sun gently coaxed the March air to a delicate early spring warmth. Birds flew overhead and walked on the sidewalks around them. Street vendors peddled sunglasses, neckties, pepper spray, New York City souvenirs, and flowers. It was hard for Decker to imagine that the events predicted by John and Cohen would actually occur. For a while it was all he could think about. For several nights after Christopher's election as Europe's Primary member on the Security Council, Decker had hardly slept because of persistent nightmares. Now, two months later, the thought of worldwide destruction seemed unimaginable. Perhaps, he thought, the damage would just be localized. It's a big planet. Maybe it would happen somewhere else, not here. A little distance could make all the difference in the world. After all, even the India-China-Pakistan War, as bad as it was, really didn't affect life here in New York. Sure, there was a lot of work going on at the United Nations aimed at rebuilding the affected countries, caring for the sick, and assisting with quick and painless deaths for those suffering from radiation-related illness; but such discussions took place in comfortable meeting rooms where the worst that had to be endured were the stories and photographs of other people's suffering. It was not that Decker didn't care about those directly affected by the war, it was just that as he looked around on this beautiful spring day the thought of such things seemed so remote. Today, right now, there was only the spring.

As frequently happened when left to his thoughts for very long, Decker began to think of Elizabeth and his daughters. The years since their deaths only seemed to intensify his longing. Elizabeth loved spring. They met in spring in the same coffee house where

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Decker met Tom Donafin. She walked in while Decker was trying to play a song he had written on the guitar. It had seemed like a pretty good song when he had practiced it earlier; then strangely, when she walked in it seemed inane and his playing was even worse. That had been forty-four years ago, but thinking back, he could feel ever)7 emotion as if it were occurring only now.

Just ahead on the sidewalk, there was a noisy commotion as a small crowd gathered around a bearded man. Jackie, Jody, and Debbie all slowed to look. Decker Ч pulled back from his memories Ч did the same. Just as Decker became aware of what was happening, the bearded man turned and looked directly at him. The man's forehead seemed covered with blood. Decker recognized the marks.

"Religion is not the cause of evil, Mr. Hawthorne," the man began. "It is only a convenient excuse used by men for the evil they do! As surely as the Sovereign Lord lives, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but would rather that they turn from their ways and live."

"Keep walking!" Decker told his companions as he reached out, quickly gathering them up like chicks and herding them along.

On the sidewalk in front of the United Nations they saw two more KDT, both with small groups gathered around them. As Decker soon learned, all but a few thousand of the Koum Damah Tartare had left Israel and spread out to countries all around the world. Their primary targets appeared to be cities with large Jewish populations, and New York had one of the largest.

June 2, 2021 Ч Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts (10:30 p.m.)

University of Mississippi graduate student Mary Ludford rubbed her eyes and took another swallow of lukewarm coffee from the cup she had owned since she was fourteen. It was her only souvenir of her father, who had abandoned her and her mother eight years before. She and her mother had sold everything else that belonged to him to make ends meet and what they couldn't sell they burned, smashed, or threw away. Her mother never understood why Mary kept the cup, and Mar)' wasn't quite sure herself. She had bought it for her father on Father's Day a year before he left.

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On the cup was a panel from Calvin andHobbes, his favorite comic strip, and hers as well. Of one thing she was certain: if not the caffeine of the coffee, then the bitterness of the memories the cup held would always drive away the sleep. At this moment, however, her mind was far from her hatred for her father.