"part2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keith Brooke - Lord of Stone)

Bligh stepped away and tried to thank the man, but they could
not leave without their papers. For a moment, the guard held
ticket, employment card and passport aloft and then he
brought them down with a grand flourish. "Enjoy our city," he
said. "If you find the time."

Bligh retrieved their documents and at last they passed
through the barricade. They walked on for some time, easy in
each other's silence, nothing to hurry them. The afternoon
stretched out ahead.

Then, with no warning, they were fired on for the first time.

They were passing down a wide street with lime trees
sprouting from either pavement. Horses dragged loaded wagons
along the road, passing with difficulty over the tram-lines
cut through the cobbles. A white-haired news-sheet
distributor was yelling from the centre of the road while his
young assistant worked her way along a queue that led into a
bakery's open doorway.

Madeleine was telling Bligh of her trips to the city as a
teenager, when the railway line through Dona-Jez was new and
her parents had been able to afford the fare. "We would go to
the Arena and watch children playing football. Afterwards,
one time, I went with a friend to the docks and we ate
lobster fresh from the baskets. We - "

A single gunshot sounded with a metal crash and the whistle
of a ricochet and in one movement Bligh's arm was across
Madeleine's shoulder and he was dragging her down roughly.
They hit the cobbled pavement with a jarring blow and
Madeleine gave a soft gasp - surprised, frightened. Bligh's
heart thudded explosively as, all around, the street scene
froze.

Another shot rang out and the queue had suddenly vanished.
Women hid in doorways or lay face down on the pavement,
clutching children, muttering to themselves and covering
their eyes with their hands.

The newspaper vendor had sprinted across the street and swept
his assistant down behind a stone water trough.

Bligh and Madeleine crawled over to join them. The trough
afforded protection from one direction, at least. Out in the
street a horse pulled its abandoned cart, oblivious to the
disturbance.