"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 01" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

nothing but an ability to read between the lines of official
documents, picking out the grain of what was not being
said from the overwhelming chaff of what was. Watching
the video had been the last stage in this procedure. There
was nothing left to do except sit down and write the thing,
and this he would do the next morning, while it was all
fresh in his mind. By the afternoon, the Burolo affair
would have no more significance for him than for any
other member of the public.
Once again, footsteps sounded in the street below. A
few minutes later the silence was abruptly shattered as a
car started up and accelerated away with a squeal of tyres.
By the time Zen reached the window it had already passed
far beyond the area of street visible through the closed
jalousies. The sound of its engine gradually faded away,
echoing and reverberating ever more distantly through
the intersecting channels of streets. The streetlight was in
its waxing phase, and as the light gradually intensified

Zen saw that the red car which had been parked further
along the street was no longer there. He closed the shut-
ters, wondering why its presence or absence should be of
any concern to him. Finding no answer, he decided it was
time to go to bed.


Nearly over now. Everything's going, the doubfs, the fears, the
cares,'.the confusion, even the pain. All draining away of its own
accord. There's nothing I need do, nothing more to be done.

When I saw him standing there, the gun in his hand, it was like
seeing myself in a mirror. He had taken my part, emerging from
nowhere, implacable, confident, unsurprised. He sounded
impatient, taunting me with a strange name, threatening me.
'There's no point in trying to hide,' he said. 'Let's get it over
with. ' As usual, I did what I was told.
I
He cried out, in rage and disbelief. Whatever he had been expec-
ting, it wasn't that. Then something overwhelmed me, knocking
me over, opening me up. I couldn't have resisted even if I'd
wanted to. It wasn't like the prst time, the man under the table
wounding me with his pistol. All he gave me was pain. This was
different. I knew at once that I was carrying a death.
It won't be long now. Already I feel light and insubstantial, as
though I were dissolving. The darkness is on the move, billowing
out to enshroud me, winding me in its endless folds. Everything
is in flux. Solid rock gives way at my touch, the ground flows
beneath me as though the river had returned to its courses,
unexplored caverns burst open like preworks as I advance. I am
lost, I who know this place better than I know my own body!