"Laura Anne Gilman - Staying Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilman Laura Anne)

Marina Fronts, who taught me all sorts of lovely Russian phrasesтАж some of which even made it into the
book.
To you all, if I haven't said it recently, grazie.

Molto grazie.




The Mississippi's mighty, but it starts in Minnesota At a place where you could walk across with five
steps downтАж

тАФ"Ghost"

Indigo Girls



Chapter One



"Hey, lady! Move it or lose it!"

The cyclist sped past her, a blur of expensive aluminum, narrow wheels and Lycra-clad body topped by
a screaming-orange helmet. HeтАФshe? it?тАФhopped off the curb and dove into the light traffic moving up
Madison Avenue, almost slamming into a cab that was cruising around the opposite corner looking for an
early-morning fare. The cabbie slammed on the brakes and the horn at the same time, and the bike
messenger made a rude gesture as he wove in and out of the middle of the street, heading downtown.

"Oh, for a stick to spoke his wheels," Wren said wistfully, staring after the cyclist with annoyance. The
man standing next to her smothered a surprised burst of laughter. Wren blinked. She hadn't been kidding;
bicycle messengers were a menace.

Dismissing the incident with the single-minded focus she brought to every job, Wren turned her attention
back to the building in front of her; the reason she was standing out on the corner at this ungodly hour of
the a.m. on a Monday. What terrible sin had she committed in a past life, to get all the morning gigs in this
life? She made a soft, snorting noise, amused at her own indignation. At least it was a pretty morning as
those things went.

In fact, Manhattan in the spring was a pretty decent place to be. Winter meant slush and biting winds,
while summer had a range of heat-induced smells that ranged from disgusting to putrid. You could live in
the city then, but you generally didn't like it. But spring, she thought, spring was the time to be here. The
sun was warming up, the breeze was cool, and people were in the mood to smile at each other. Even bad
days had an edge of promise to them.

But right now, spring weather aside, Wren couldn't find a damn thing to be happy about. Seven in the
morning was way too early, and the job that had sounded like quick and easy money at first was rapidly