"Cook, Glen - The Tower of Fear" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cook Glen)

"I'm still waiting for the punch line.''

"Taidiki took his own life afterward, as a protest. He said Qushmarrah had murdered him already and he hadn't had sense enough to lie down."

"The point?"

"That was the moment I first realized there were people of Qushmarrah who were less than enchanted with our efforts."

"And?"

"A more dramatic incident occurred in the Hahr day before yesterday. The Dartars rounded up eighteen ground-level members. They had been denounced anonymously. The Dartars did not bother interrogating them. They just executed them there in the street. Some of the onlookers cheered."

"I see."

"Do you? Some of the brethren have been feathering ..."

"I said I see." The General reflected for several minutes. "Khadifa, your father has just had another of his spells and thinks he's dying again. You round up your brother and cousins and have them here later tonight so they can be given their legacies."

"Yes sir."

"Fa'tad is in the street out there?"

"Yes sir."

"Help me to the door. I want to see him."

"Is it worth the risk, sir?"

"Is he going to recognize a man who's been dead for six years?"

He did not get his fuzzy glimpse of the enemy. Fa'tad al-Akla and his tribesmen, and the Herodian infantrymen, had gone. Char Street had become its normal twilight self.



2



"What's this?" Aaron asked, looking at the concoction Laella had set before him. He shifted on his cushion. The aches of work and the terror of the afternoon were fading. His question was one of honest inquiry, not complaint.

"What does it look like?"

"Haifa yellow squash with stuff baked inside it."

"Can't put anything past you when you put your mind to it, can I?"

Arif said, "I don't like this stuff, Mom." Stafa echoed him immediately. The younger boy was just into that stage.

"You haven't tried it yet."