"Gordon Eklund - Falling Toward Forever" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eklund Gordon)

"I'm sorry if I have offended you," said the man, but he
sounded more amused than apologetic.

"I'm not offended." Waller started to turn away, but the man
came with him. His spoken English was excellent, if stilted. Most
of the guerillas spoke French, if anything.

"The reason I ask these questions is not wholly for myself.
Your presence here is an enigma to all of us."

"I'm not the only white man who's ever fought with you."

"No, but the others were here for one of two reasons. It was
either the money or it was the ideology. Tell me, then. Which is it
with you?"

"Neither."

The man smiled, his teeth made bright by the reflecting
firelight. "Then you must see why it is so difficult for us to accept
your presence."

"The colonel seems satisfied. Shouldn't he know?" The colonel,
in fact, sat among them tonight. With the other officers, he
squatted beside another, somewhat larger fire.

"The colonel is an excellent soldier."

"I never said otherwise."
 "But neither have you said why you are here."

"For one reason," said Waller. "I'm a soldier. When I was
eighteen, my country sent me to fight in a war. I'm twenty-six
now but fighting is all I know. I tried other things and couldn't
do it. So I came here. It's the only war available. It keeps me
busy."

"And our beliefsтАФthey mean nothing."

"No."

"But why choose our side? The insurgent side? Wouldn't you
be safer fighting for the government?"

"I decided a long time ago that I don't like governments."

"Not even your own? They are not supporting us, you know."

"Most especially my own." In spite of the cold, Waller stood