"Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan - The New Space Opera" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

тАЬHopes and Dreams ParkтАЭ would be like this. I kept hear-ing voices, seeing flitting shadows; although the
park area was supposed to have been cleared. IтАЩd mentioned the weak shielding; I hoped it had been
fixedтАФ

тАЬAre religious ceremonies held here?тАЭ I asked Tiamaat.

She drew back her head, the gesture for тАЬno.тАЭ тАЬMost KiAn have not followed religion for a long time.
ItтАЩs just a place sacred to ourselves, to nature.тАЭ

тАЬBut itтАЩs fine for the Shelter Police, and Pel├й and me, to be with you?тАЭ

тАЬYou are advocates.тАЭ

We entered a clearing dotted with thickets. At our feet smaller plants had the character of woodland turf,
starred with bronze and purple flow-ers. Above us the primary sun dipped toward its false horizon,
lighting the bloodred veins in the foliage. The blue daystar had set. Baal and Tiamaat were walking
together: I heard him whisper, in the An language, тАЬnow itтАЩs our time.тАЭ

тАЬAnd these are the lucky ones,тАЭ muttered one of the Ki delegates to me, her тАЬEnglishтАЭ mediated by a
throat-mike processor that gave her a teddy-bear growl. тАЬAnyone who reached Speranza had contacts,
money. Many millions of our people are trying to survive on a flayed, poisoned bombsiteтАФтАЭ

And whose fault is that?

I nodded, vaguely. It was not my place to take sidesтАФ

Something flew by me, big and solid. Astonished, I realized it had been Baal. He had moved so fast, it
was so totally unexpected. He had plunged right through the cordon of armed police, through the shield.
He was gone, vanished. I leaped in pursuit at once, yelling: тАЬHold your fire!тАЭ I was flung back, thrown
down into zinging stars and blackness. The shield had been strengthened, but not enough.

Shelter Police, bending over me, cried: what happened, maтАЩam, are you hit?

My conviction that we had company in here fused into certaintyтАФ

тАЬOh, God! Get after him. After him!тАЭ

I ran with the police, Pel├й stayed with Tiamaat and the Ki: on our shared frequency I heard him alerting
Colonel Shamaz. We cast to and fro through the twilight wood, held together by the invisible strands and
globules of our shield, taunted by rustles of movement, the CSP muttering to each other about refugee
assassins, homemade weapons. But the young leader of the An was unharmed when we found him,
having followed the sounds of a scuffle and a terrified cry. He crouched, in his sleek tailoring, over his
prey. Dark blood trickled from the victimтАЩs nostrils, high-placed in a narrow face. Dark eyes were open,
fixed and wide.

I remembered the children in that school, staring up in disbelief at the ogres.

Baal rose, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. тАЬWhat are you looking at?тАЭ he inquired haughtily,
in his neighborsтАЩ language. The rest of our party had caught up: he was speaking to the Ki. тАЬWhat did
you expect? You know who I am.тАЭ