"Philip Jose Farmer - Riverworld 4 - The Magic Labyrinth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

Italian, Giovanni Fattori, A.D. 1825 to 1908. Poor fellow. It may be his final
work, since he fell overboard during a party and was smashed to shreds by the
paddle wheel. Even if he were resurrected, which isn't likely, he won't find
pigments enough for a single painting anywhere but on this boat and the Rex"

Sam took them along the outside or promenade deck to the bow. Here was mounted
an 88-millimeter cannon. So far, Sam said, it hadn't been used, and new
gunpowder would soon have to be made to refill the charges.

"But when I catch up with the Rex, I'll blow Rotten John out of the water with
this."

He also pointed out the rocket batteries on the promenade, heat-seeking
missiles with a range of a mile and a half and carrying warheads of forty
pounds of plastic explosive.

"If the cannons miss, these'll shred his ass."

One of the women tourists was well acquainted with Clem-ens' work and
biographies about him. She spoke in a low voice to her companion. "I neyer
realized that Mark Twain was so bloodthirsty."

"Madame," Sam said, having overheard her, "I am not bloodthirsty! I am the
most pacifistic of men! I loathe violence, and the idea of war puts my bowels
into an uproar. If you'd read my essays about war and those who love it, you'd
know that. But I have been forced into this situation and many like it. To
survive, you must lie better than the liars, deceive more than the, deceivers,
and kill the killers first! For me, it's sheer necessity, though justified!
What would you do if King John had stolen your boat after you'd gone through
years of search for iron and other metals to build your dream! And years of

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fighting others who wanted to take them away from you after you'd found them,
and on every side treachery and murder all directed against you! And what
would you do if that John killed some of your good friends and your wife and
then sped away laughing at you! Would you let him get away with it? I think
not, not if you've got an ounce of courage."

"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," a man said.

"Yes. Maybe. But if there is a Lord, and He works His vengeance, how's He
going to do it without using humans as His hands? Did you ever hear of any
wicked person being struck down by lightning, except by accident? Lightning
also strikes thousands of innocents every year, you know! No, He has to use
human beings as His instruments, and who else is better qualified than me? Or
more made by circumstances into His keen and purposefully designed tool?"

Sam was so upset that he had to send a marine up to the grand salon to get
four ounces of bourbon to settle his nerves.