"Laurell K. Hamilton - Anita Blake 05 - Bloody Bones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Laurell K)

"So they want to raise the dead and ask who they are?"
"Exactly."
I shrugged. "I can raise a couple of the corpses in the coffins. Ask who
they are. What happens if their last name is Bouvier?"
"They have to buy the land a second time. They think some of the corpses
are Bouviers. That's why they want all the bodies raised."
I raised my eyebrows. "You're joking."
He shook his head, looking pleased. "Can you do it?"
"I don't know. Give me the pictures again." I set my coffee mug on his desk
and took the pictures back. "Bert, they've screwed this six ways to Sunday.
It's a mass grave, thanks to the bulldozers. The bones are all mixed together.
I've only read about one case of anyone raising a zombie from a mass grave.
But they were calling a specific person. They had a name." I shook my head.
"Without a name it may not be possible."
"Would you be willing to try?"
I spread the pictures over the desk, staring at them. The top half of a
skull had turned upside down like a bowl. Two finger bones attached by
something dry and desiccated that must once had been human tissue lay next to
it. Bones, bones everywhere but not a name to speak.
Could I do it? I honestly didn't know. Did I want to try? Yeah. I did.
"I'd be willing to try."
"Wonderful."
"Raising them a few every night is going to take weeks, even if I can do
it. With John's help it would be quicker."
"It will cost them millions to delay that long," Bert said.
"There's no other way to do it."
"You raised the Davidsons' entire family plot, including Great-Grandpa. You
weren't even supposed to raise him. You can raise more than one at a time."
I shook my head. "That was an accident. I was showing off. They wanted to
raise three family members. I thought I could save them money by doing it in
one shot."
"You raised ten family members, Anita. They only asked for three."
"So?"
"So can you raise the entire cemetery in one night?"
"You're crazy," I said.
"Can you do it?"
I opened my mouth to say no, and closed it. I had raised an entire cemetery
once. Not all of them had been two centuries old, but some of them had been
older, nearly three hundred. And I raised them all. Of course, I had two human
sacrifices to ride for power. It was a long story how I ended up with two
people dying inside a circle of power. Self-defense, but the magic didn't
care. Death is death.
Could I do it? "I really don't know, Bert."
"That's not a no," he said. He had an eager, anticipatory look on his face.
"They must have offered you a bundle of money," I said.
He smiled. "We're bidding on the project."
"We're what?"
"They sent this package to us, the Resurrection Company in California and
the Essential Spark in New Orleans."
"They prefer Elan Vital to the English translation," I said. Frankly, it