"BRYANT, Edward - Shark (v1.0)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bryant Edward)

She grinned. "So they told you."

He said, "1 can't allow it."

The grin vanished. "Don't talk as though you owned me."

"I'm not, I'm just-" He floundered. "Damn it, it's a shock."

She took his hand and drew him down beside her on the couch. "Would 1 deny your dreams?"

His voice pleaded. "You're my lover."

Valerie looked away. "It's what 1 want."

"You're crazy."

"You can be an oceanographer," she said. "Why can't 1 be a shark?"

Maria ushered in the visitors with ill grace. "Get along," she said out in the hallway. "Senor Folger is a busy man."

"We will not disturb him long," said a woman's voice.

The visitors, as they entered, had to duck to clear the doorframe. The woman was nearly two meters in height; the man half a head taller. Identically clad in gray jumpsuits, they wore identical smiles. They were -Folger searched for the right word-extreme. Their hair was too soft and silkily pale; their eyes too obviously blue, teeth too white and savage.

The pair looked down at Folger. "I am Inga Lindfors," said the woman. "My brother, Per." The man nodded slightly.

"Apparently you know who I am," said Folger.

"You are Marcus Antonius Folger," Inga Lindfors said.

"It was supposed to be Marcus Aurelius," Folger said irrelevantly. "My father never paid close attention to the classics."

"The fortune of confusion," said Inga. "I find Mark

Antony the more fascinating. He was a man of decisive action."

Bewildered, Maria stared from face to face.

"You were a component of the Marine Institute on East Falkland," said Per.

"I was. It was a long time ago."

"We wish to speak with you," said Inga, "as representitives of the Protectorate of Old America."

"So? Talk."

"We speak officially."

"Oh." Folger smiled at Maria. "I must be alone with these people."