"Simon R. Green - Deathstalker - 5 - Deathstalker Destiny" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

to save them.
"You've got to slow down, Owen," Oz murmured softly in his ear. The AI sounded distinctly worried.
"You can't keep pushing yourself like this. You're killing yourself."
"The work has to be done," said Owen, subvocalizing so those still working around him wouldn't hear.
"The Hadenmen and the Grendels knocked the shit out of this place. Half the wall's down, most of the
buildings are leaning on each other for support, and the roofs leaking in a hundred places. The lepers can't
do it on their own. A lot of them belong in sickbeds anyway."
"That's not why you're doing it," said Oz. "You're not fooling anyone, you know. All this hard work and
toil, working till you drop; it's not for them, for the Mission. You're punishing yourself, for letting the
Blood Runners take Hazel."
"I wasn't there, when she needed me," said Owen, staring at the ground between his feet. "If I had been,
maybe I could have doneтАж somethingтАж"
"You'd lost your powers. You were just a man. There was nothing you could have done."
"Work is good," said Owen. "Simple problems, with simple solutions. It keeps me from thinking, from
remembering. If I stop to think and remember, I'll go mad."
"OwenтАж"
"They've had her two weeks now. Fourteen days and nights, in the Obeah Systems, on the other side of
the Empire, to torture and torment her as it pleases them. And I'm trapped here, with no powers, and not
even a hope of a ship to get me offplanet so I can go after her. They could have done a lot, in fourteen
days and nights."
When the Blood Runners first took Hazel, Owen did go crazy, for a while. He wouldn't eat or sleep for
days, stalking blindly round the ruined Mission as the terrorized lepers scattered to get out of his way. He
screamed and ranted and called Hazel's name, making horrible threats and howling like an animal in pain.
In the end, he grew weak enough that Sister Marion was able to wrestle him to the ground and hold him
down, while Mother Beatrice injected him with industrial-strength sedatives. His dreams then were vague,
horrible things, and when he woke up, they'd strapped him to a bed in the Mission infirmary.
He'd worn out his voice with screaming and ranting, but he still cursed them all in a harsh, rasping voice,
while Moon sat quietly at his side, giving what comfort he could. It was some time before Owen got
control of himself again, exhausted physically and emotionally. But he never cried. Mother Beatrice came
to see him often, and offered him the comfort of her God, but he wouldn't take it. There was no room in
his cold heart now for anything but rescue or revenge.
When they finally let him up again, he spent the best part of a day in the Mission comm center, calling for
a ship to come and pick him up. Any ship. He used every bit of authority he had, pulled every string,


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 Simon R. Green - Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

called in every favor he could think of, threatened and pleaded and bribed, and none of it did any good.
There was a war on. Actually, there were several wars, going on simultaneously. The Empire was under
attack by the Hadenmen, Shub, Grendels, the insect aliens, and the threat of the Recreated. Owen just
wasn't important enough anymore to be worth diverting a precious ship to far-off Lachrymae Christi. He'd
just have to wait.
Owen would have wrecked the whole damned comm center, if Mother Beatrice hadn't been there, her
eyes full of compassion. So instead, he stalked out and buried himself in the rebuilding of the Mission. It
helped that there was a lot that needed doing. He made himself eat and drink at regular intervals, because
if he didn't Mother Beatrice or Sister Marion stood over him till he did. When it grew too dark to work, he
lay down on his bed and pretended to sleep, waiting with empty heart for it to be light again.
The rebuilding was slow and hard work now that his powers were gone, burned out in his last stand
against the Grendels. He was no stronger or faster than any other man now, and all his other abilities were