"Andy Duncan - Fortitude" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Andy)

to look at him. I hoped it was a smile. "Hello, Joe. I'm sorry we're on
opposite sides today."
I sounded like a Latin-school brat quavering his way through "The boy
stood on the burning deck." I could not read the expression on Angelo's
face. I had to go on, quickly, before I lost the energy, before the other
words took over. "And Joe, while I don't agree with your methods out here
-- all this agitating and public disturbance and socialism and all -- I
want you to know that, well, if there's anything Beatrice and I and our
family can do to help you out, and your family, then Joe, you only have to
say the word. I don't hold with handouts, but that, Joe, that wouldn't be
a handout, that would be -- I'd say that would be something like justice.
And I'd be proud to do it. We'd be proud to do it. I hope you believe
that, Joe." The Capitol seesawed. I fought to stand upright.
Joe swallowed once, twice. Damn, he had to be scrawnier than at Cheppy,
else how the hell could he have carried me even a foot? Sawed-off little
bowlegged runt?
"I do believe it, Colonel." He sounded raspy, too. He cleared his throat,
laughed a little. "I surely do."
I was aware of the officers behind me, staring at my back the same way the
smug bastards used to stare at me at West Point, when I gave the whole
parade ground holy hell while they stood behind me and disapproved, with
their thin lips and their narrow eyes, but had nothing to say. To my face,
disapproval is nothing, it's dust, it's lint, it's the prick of a cactus,
but from behind it's a strong enemy hand pushing, pushing. The hell with
West Point; the hell with them. But the words were harder and harder to
say. I thought I was going to choke, or vomit.
"Can't call me Colonel anymore, Joe," I spat out. "I'm a major, now. Got
busted down after the Armistice. Too many officers." I glanced sideways.
"More than any sane army needed."
He flashed a smile that did not reach his eyes. "Yeah, peace is hard on
everybody, huh, Colonel?"
"Oh sweet goddamn, that's true," I said. "Yes sweet Jesus yes."
"Uh, Major, the truck is waiting -- "
"I just wanted to see you, Colonel." Joe took a deep breath. "I just
wanted to have a good look at you. I wanted ... I just wanted ... "
He seemed to be having trouble finding words, too. I held out my hand.
Would it feel clammy to him? "I'm glad you found me, Joe."
He took my hand, held it limply for a second, then let it go. "Colonel, I
-- "
"Please, come see us in Fort Myer, have dinner with us. Bring your family.
If they're home in -- New Jersey? I thought so -- we'll bring them in,
too, on the train."
"Colonel, I want to say -- "
"Take care, Joe."
"Don't worry about me, Colonel. Shit!" He flinched from the sergeant's
hand on his shoulder. "Wait a minute. Hey, Colonel. How about this? I got
an idea, see. What do you think of this idea, huh?" As he kept shrugging
off the increasingly insistent guards, tried to wriggle away, he did a
sort of shimmy dance, keeping his gaze on me, and talking more quickly, as
if energized. "When I get out of jail, because I guess I will get out,