"John Dalmas - The Second Coming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

The Second Coming

By John Dalmas

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Contents




Prologue

The apartment was small, its furnishings expensive and conservative. As usual, its
occupant ate aloneтАФa TV supper in a plastic tray. Meat, mashed potatoes, mixed
vegetables and a brownie, the portions meager for so tall a man, and there weren't
even salt and pepper shakers on the table. His appearance had been likened to
Lincoln's, before Lincoln grew the beard, but the resemblance was strictly skeletal.
His mouth was nearly lipless, his hair disciplined and straight. Creases bracketed his
mouth from nose to chin, curving sourly at the bottom, reflecting the absence of
humor.


Just now he was eating to television, to the Authors Channel, waiting for a scheduled
interview. An unauthorized biography of General Rodney Beauchamp had been
published. Beauchamp had reoriented and reorganized the army for twenty-first-
century needs, then been forced to retire for publicly criticizing foreign policy. The
diner knew the general, and approved of him.


Meanwhile the coverage was for a book on someone of whom the diner did not
approve at all. While he watched, his fork transferred small bites of food to his mouth.
He chewed them thoroughly, as he'd been taught when a child.


On the screen, two men sat half facing each other, half facing the camera. "I've read a
number of Ngunda Aran's columns," the host said, "and heard him lecture on TV. I
find his viewpoints interesting."


"Actually," the author said, "I find them interesting too, but you need to consider
them in context. Before Ngunda the writer and lecturer, there was Ngunda the
philanthropist, whose good works brought him broad notoriety. Now he uses that
base, that foundation of respect, as a public platform from which to expound his
beliefsтАФif that's what they actually are."
The host interrupted. "But most columnists expound on their beliefs. And he hasn't
proposed crimes, hasn't recommended civil disobedience, hasn't even been
discourteous. What, exactly, is your complaint with him?"


"First let me point out that the bonds holding society together are stretched thin today,