"William Gibson - Spook Country" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gibson William)

Tito nodded.

тАЬThe only Americans our grandfather knew in Havana were CIA,тАЭ Alejandro said, more softly now,
though there was no one else in the restaurant other than the waiter, who was reading a Chinese weekly
on his stool behind the till.

Tito remembered going with his mother to the Chinese cemetery behind Calle 23, shortly before he had
come to New York. Something had been retrieved from an ossuary there, one of the small houses of
bones, and Tito had delivered this elsewhere, proud of his tradecraft. And in the reeking toilet behind a
Malecon restaurant he had flicked through the papers, in their mildewed envelope of rubberized fabric.
He had no idea what they might have been, now, but he knew they had been typed in an English heтАЩd
scarcely known how to read.

He had never told this to anyone, and now did not tell Alejandro.

His feet, in black Red Wing boots, were very cold. He imagined himself slipping luxuriously into a deep
Japanese bath of this same duck soup. тАЬHe looks like the men who used to stand in the hardware stores
along this street,тАЭ he said to Alejandro. тАЬOld men in old coats, with nothing else to do.тАЭ The hardware
stores of Canal were gone now, replaced by cellular shops and counterfeit Prada.

тАЬIf you were to tell Carlito that you had seen the same van twice, or even the same woman,тАЭ Alejandro
told the steaming surface of his soup, тАЬhe would send someone else. The protocol demands it.тАЭ

Their grandfather too was gone, the author of that protocol, like those old men along Canal Street. His
complexly illegal ashes had been flung, one chilly April morning, from a Staten Island Ferry, the uncles
shielding ritual cigars against the wind, while the vesselтАЩs resident pickpockets hung well back, away from
what they rightly perceived to be a most private activity.

тАЬThere has been nothing,тАЭ Tito said. тАЬNothing to indicate any interest.тАЭ

тАЬIf someone pays us to pass this man contrabandтАФand by the nature of our business we pass nothing
elseтАФthen someone else is surely interested.тАЭ

Tito tested the joints of his cousinтАЩs logic, finding them sound. He nodded.

тАЬYou know the expression тАШget a life,тАЩ cousin?тАЭ Alejandro had switched to English. тАЬWe all need lives,
Tito, eventually, if weтАЩre to stay here.тАЭ

Tito said nothing.
тАЬHow many deliveries, so far?тАЭ

тАЬFour.тАЭ

тАЬToo many.тАЭ

They ate their soup in silence then, hearing trucks rumble over metal, along Canal.



LATER TITO STOOD before the deep sink in his single tall room in Chinatown, washing winter socks