"08 - The SSR Sings the Blues" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"I'm unarmed!" My gun slid across the floor as I threw my hands into the
air. Fingers quivered on triggers-it was all over.

"Don't shoot-I want him alive. For the moment."

I stood frozen, not breathing until the trigger fingers relaxed. Looked up
and quickly found the security bug in the ceiling. Must be one in every
room and corridor down here. They had been watching me all the time. A good
try, Jim. The Colonel grated his teeth horribly and stabbed a finger in my
direction.

"Take him. Chain him. Bind him. Bring him."

This was all done with ruthless efficiency. My toes dragged along the floor
as I was whisked back to the cell, stripped at gunpoint, thrown to the
floor with my black robe thrown on top of me. The door clanged shut and I
was alone. Very much alone.

"Cheer up, Jim, you've been in worse trouble before," I chirped smilingly.
Then snarled, "When?"

Back in the pits again. My abortive attempt at escape had only gained me a
few bruises.

"This can't be it!" I shouted. "It can't all end just like this."

"It can-and it will," the Colonel's funereal voice intoned as the cell door
opened again. A dozen guns were pointed at me as a guard brought in a tray
with a bottle of champagne on it and a single glass.

I watched in stupefied disbelief as he twisted the cork out. There was a
pop and a gush as the golden fluid filled the glass. He handed it to me.

"What's this, what's this?" I mumbled, staring wide-eyed at the rising
bubbles.

"Your last request," Neuredan said. "That and a cigarette."

He took one from a package and lit it, holding it out to me. I shook my
head. "I don't smoke." He ground the cigarette under his heel.
"Anyway-champagne and a cigarette thatТs not my last request."

"Yes it is. Forms of last request are standardized by law. Drink."

I drank. It tasted all right. I belched and handed back the glass. "I'll
take a refill." Anything to gain time, to think. I watched the wine being
poured and my brain was dull and empty. "You never told me about the . . .
execution."