"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 10" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

no idea where he lived. For a moment he thought of
appealing to the crowd, of throwing himself on their
mercy. But there was no time to indulge in public oratory,
and besides, he had been branded a spy, a proven liar, an
agent of the hated government in Rome. Anyone who
helped him would risk placing his own position in the
community in jeopardy. Spadola was right. He was on his
own.
Then he saw the Mercedes, and realized that there was
just one faint hope. It hung by the narrowest of threads,
but he had nothing to lose. Anything was better than
skulking about the village, hiding in corners waiting to be
routed out and killed.
As he shoved his way unceremoniously through the
knots of bystanders, Zen noticed Turiddu standing in a
group of other men. They were all staring at him, talking
in Iow voices and pointing at a yellow Fiat Uno with Rome
number plates parked nearby. To one side, all alone, stood
Elia, the mad beggar woman. Zen belatedly noted the
resemblance between her and Turiddu, and realized that
he must he the brother she had rejected. That explained
his anger on finding her at the pizzeria the night before.
A community like this, a mentally ill relative would be,~
perpetual source of shame.
He released the handbrake of the Mercedes and put the
gear-leaver into neutral. Then he got out and started to,
push with all his might, struggling to overcome the
vehicle's inertia and the slight inclin:. leading up to th:
main street. His headache sprang back into achve life and
his aching limbs protested. After a violent effort the c.ir
rolled on to the cracked concrete slabs of the street. Zen
turned the wheel so that it was facing downhill, then got
moving and jumped back inside. Soon the car was rolliny,
quite fast down the steeply inclined main street and round
the curve leading out of the village. He wasn't in the clenr
yet, not by a long way, but he was exhilarated by his initial
success. By the time he reached the new houses on the
outskirts, the car was travelling as fast as he would
wanted to go anyway. He even had to use the horn several
times to warn groups of villagers of his silent approach.


When I saw him leaving I thought everything was lost. l'd
followed him everywhere, gun in hand, flitting through the
shadows like a swift at dusk. All for nothing. There was always
someone there, foiling my plans, as though some god protected
him! And now he was beyond my reach.

He thought he was safe, I thought I'd failed. What neither of us
understood was that his death was already installed in him,