"Joe Haldeman - Blood Sisters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

"You mean the real Mafia?" I said.
"That depends on what you call real. Mafia Incorporated comes into it too, in a more or
less legitimate way. I was supposedly one of six Maribelle Ghentlee clones that they had
purchased to set up as courtesans in New Orleans, to provoke a test case. They claimed that
the Sisterhood's prohibition against clone prostitutes constituted unfair restraint of trade."
"Never heard of the case. I guess they lost."
"Of course. They wouldn't have done it in the South if they'd wanted to win."
"Wait a minute. Jumping ahead. Obviously, they plan ultimately to use you as a substitute
for the real Maxine Kraus."
"When the old man dies, which will be soon."
"Then why would they parade you around in public?"
"Just to give me an interim identity. They chose Ghentlee as a clone-mother because she
was the closest one available to Maxine Kraus's physical appearance. I had good makeup;
none of the real Ghentlee clones suspected I wasn't one of them."
"Still . . . what happens if you run into someone who knows what the real Kraus looks
like? With your face and figure, she must be all over the gossip sheets in Europe:"
"You're sweet." Her smile could make me do almost anything. Short of taking on the
Mafia. "She's a total recluse, though, for fear of kidnappers. She probably hasn't seen twenty
people in her entire life.
"And she isn't beautiful, though she has the raw materials for it. Her mother died when she
was still a babyтАФkilled by kidnappers."
"I remember that."
"So she's never had a woman around to model herself after. No one ever taught her how to
do her hair properly, or use makeup. A man buys all her clothes. She doesn't have anyone to
be beautiful for."
"You feel sorry for her."
"More than that." She looked at me with an expression that somehow held both defiance
and hopelessness. "Can you understand? She's my mother. I was force-grown so we're the
same apparent age, but she's still my only parent. I love her. I won't be part of a plan to kill
her."
"You'd rather die?" I said softly. She was going to.
"Yes. But that wouldn't accomplish anything, not if the Mafia does it. They'd take a few
cells and make another clone. Or a dozen, or a hundred, until one came along with a
personality to go along with matricide."
"Once they know you feel this wayтАФ"
"They do know. I'm running."
That galvanized me. "They know who your lawyer is?"
"My lawyer?" She gasped when I took the gun out of the drawer. People who only see
guns on the cube are usually surprised at how solid and heavy they actually look.
"Could they trace you here, is what I mean." I crossed the room and slid open the door.
No one in the corrider. I twisted a knob and twelve heavy magnetic bolts slammed home.
"I don't think so. The lawyers gave me a list of names, and I just picked one I liked."
I wondered whether it was Jack or J. Michael. I pushed a button on the wall and steel
shutters rolled down over the view of Central Park. "Did you take a cab here?"
"No, subway. And I went up to One hundred and twenty-fifth and back."
"Smart." She was staring at the gun. "It's a .48 Magnum Recoilless. Biggest handgun a
civilian can buy."
"You need one so big?"
"Yes." I used to carry a .25 Beretta, small enough to conceal in a bathing suit. I used to
have a partner, too. It was a long story, and I didn't like to tell it. "Look," I said. "I have a