"S. A. Gorden - The Duce of Pentacles" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gorden S A)

people's best.
Every day Makinen had hall duty during the lunch hour. The school had a
large open commons area where the kids would mill about while waiting for
their fifth-hour classes to start. He stood on the second floor balcony
looking over his right shoulder at a group of girls. Most people thought of
teenage girls as pretty and sexy, but although he considered them pretty, he
was repulsed. When he was younger, he'd had a large fish tank. The tropical
fish would form up in schools. They would swim back and forth through the
water ignoring the other fish with their strength of numbers. A fish would
dart from the school and nip the fins of a lone fish swimming by itself. As if
this was a marking of a victim, the other fish in the school would take a turn
harassing the marked fish. It would take days but finally he would find the
fish in the tank, floating belly up with a hole eaten halfway through its
belly and the school pecking at another fish.
Today James watched a girl leave her clique, make a remark to a
friendless girl, and leave her in tears. He knew the others in the clique
sensing blood would soon join in the game. In a weariness that soaked through
his bones, he eased himself away from the railing to break up the group. He
was too late.
The new history teacher, Lori Waithe, moved the girls along. She had
graduated five years earlier from this same school. James remembered her in
the vague way he remembered the hundreds of other former students. But now it
was different. She wasn't a member of some girlish clique anymore, but an
individual, a woman. She had graduated from the school, the clique, to become
an individual to be admired and appreciated. He watched her move, studied her
profile. His eyes followed the clean smooth lines of her body until he got to
the curve of her butt. That had always been his favorite part of the female
anatomy. The only thing he could still remember without anger or remorse about
his former wife was tracing the curve of her buttock with his fingertips after
lovemaking.
From the other end of the commons another person watched. The softening
look on James's face made it obvious what he was thinking. The watcher
followed his gaze to the group of girls. Anger flared. The watcher lusted for
one in the group. Since the watcher lusted, so must the teacher on the
balcony. The teacher must be destroyed.
****
*Click*_. The light turns on. Hands reach for the deck of cards, pick
the top card and turn it over._
A crowned man sitting on a throne, holding a sword is on the card. But
the card is upside down...
The hands seem to hesitate for a time, then they reach up to turn off
the light.
--------
CHAPTER 2: The King of Swords reversed
Jefferson William Shermon considered himself a genius and knew he was a
sadist. He decided to become a school superintendent while still in grade
school. It had occurred while he was waiting in the principal's office with
three of his friends. They had been caught smoking in the bathroom. Although
he was afraid, he reveled in the fear being generated by his friends as they
were called into the office one at a time. Jefferson loved the fear so much,