"Gordon Eklund - Serving in Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eklund Gordon)

Jan's anatomy either ached or stung or both: the jaw, nose, eyes,
cheekbone, forehead, mouth, chest, arms, abdomen, stomach,
knees, ankles, feet, toes, and buttocks.

Groaning with the vastness of this suffering, he somehow
managed to squeeze both eyes open.

He was in the room on the floor, with a plate of food in front
of him.

His stomach revolted at the sight and he tilted his head
painstakingly away.

Then he saw the girl. She was young, tall, and perhaps pretty.
The latter was difficult to know because her face was painted in
a macabre fashion suggestive of the graveyard: lips streaked red,
eyes shadowed black, cheeks smeared white.

He shuddered at the sight of her and briefly wondered:
Heaven? Could I be there already? Is this an angel?

But her words convinced him she was merely human: "You
are really an idiot, aren't you? Throwing a punch at Mallory?
You're lucky he didn't murder you on your feet."

Jan assumed Mallory must be the second, bigger man. "He
nearly did."

The girl laughed. "And Whitlow, too? Don't you know he has
eighty percent of the say whether you graduate from the
Academy or not? I think he's too big a man to bear grudges
against people just because they're stupid, but I'm not sure you
even deserve that much."

"Who are you?" Jan was finding talking easier than he had
anticipated. As long as he paused between every word to lick his
lips and catch his breath, he seemed able to manage as many as
three words at a time.

"My name is Gail Conrad. Whitlow and Mallory asked me to
pop in here and see if you were really as crazy as you were acting.
I'm a trainee, too, the same as you, so you don't have to try to
punch me unless you really want. Of course, I'm an expert in all
forms of combat and would have no trouble beating you into a
mess of bloody pulp."

"No, thanks," Jan said. "I've been turned into bloody pulp
enough for one day."

"Then you really aren't crazy?"