"Simon R. Green - Hawk and Fisher 2 - Winner Takes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

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"You know the rules," he said flatly. "No knives. Now, turn out your pockets, the
lot of you. Come on, get on with it, or I'll have Fisher do it for you."

There was a sudden rush to see who could empty their pockets the quickest. A
largish pile of knives, knuckledusters, and blackjacks formed on the cobbles.
There were also a fair number of good-luck charms and trinkets, and one
shrunken head on a string. Hawk looked at the posterers disgustedly.

"If you can't be trusted to play nicely, you won't be allowed to play at all.
Understand? Now, get the hell out of here before I arrest the lot of you for
loitering. One group goes North, the other goes South. And if I get any more
trouble from any of you today, I'll send you home to your families in chutney jars.
Now, move it!"

The posterers vanished, taking their wounded with them. Only a few crumpled
posters scattered across the street remained to show they'd ever been there. Hawk
kicked the pile of weapons into the gutter, and they disappeared down a storm
drain. He and Fisher took turns glaring at the crowd until it broke up, and then
they put away their weapons and continued their patrol.

"That was a nice punch of yours, Isobel."

"My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure."

"And because you wear a knuckle-duster under your glove."

Fisher shrugged. "On the whole, I thought we handled that very diplomatically."

Hawk raised an eyebrow. "Diplomatically?"

"Of course. We didn't kill anyone, did we?"

Hawk smiled sourly. Fisher sniffed. "Look, Hawk, if we hadn't stepped in when
we did, the odds were that fight would have developed into a full-blown riot. And
how many would we have had to kill to stop a riot in its tracks?" Fisher shook her
head. "We've already had five riots since they announced the date of the election,
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and that was less than two days ago. Hawk, this city is going to the dogs."

"How can you tell?" said Hawk, and Fisher snorted with laughter. Hawk smiled
too, but there wasn't much humor in it. "I don't think that bunch had it in them to
riot. It was taking them all their time to work up to a disturbance of the peace. We
didn't have to come down on them so hard."