"Harry Harrison - SSR 06 - A Stainless Steel Rat is Born" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

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14 A STAINLESS STEEL RAT IS BORN

old videos, but I surely had the tone of voice right because I had succeeded in capturing his
attention this time. He looked up slowly and there was the glare of cold hatred in his eyes.
"NobodyтАФand I mean nobodyтАФtalks to Willy the Blade that way. I'm going to cut you, kid, cut you
bad. I'm going to cut my initial into your face. A 'V for Willy. " "A 'W'," I said. "Willy is
spelled with a 'W'."

- This upset him even more. "I know how to spell, I ain't no moron!" He was blazing with rage now,
digging furiously under the mattress on his bed. He produced a hacksaw blade that I could~see had
the back edge well sharpened. A deadly little weapon. He bounced it in his hand, sneered one last
sneerтАФthen lunged at me.
Well, needless to say, that is not the recommended way to approach a Black Belt. I moved aside,
chopped his wrist as he went by--then kicked the back of his ankle so that he ran headfirst into
the wall.
He was knocked cold. When he came to I was sitting on

my bunk and doing my nails with his knife. "The name is Jim," I said, lip-curled and nasty. "Now
you try saying it. J тАв n
im.
He stared at me, his face twistedтАФthen began to cry! I was horrified. Could this really be
happening?
"They always pick on me. You're no better. Make fun of

me. And you took my knife away. I worked a month making that knife, had to pay ten bucks for the
broken blade...."
The thought of all of the troubles had started him blubbering again. I saw then that he was only
a year or two older than meтАФand a lot more insecure. So my first introduction to criminal life
found me cheering him up, getting a wet towel to wipe his face, giving him back his knifeтАФand even
giving him a five-buck goidpiece to stop his crying. I was beginning to feel that a life of crime
was not quite what I thought it would be.
It was easy enough to get the story of his lifeтАФin fact it

was hard to shut him up once he got in full spate. He was

A STAINLESS STEEL BAT IS BORN 15

filled with self-pity and wallowed in the chance to reveal all to an audience.
Pretty sordid, I thought, but kept silent while his boring reminiscences washed over me. Slow in
school, laughed at by the others, the lowest marks. Weak and put upon by the bullies, gaining
status only when he discoveredтАФby accident of course with a broken bottleтАФthat he could be

a bully too once he had a weapon. The rise in status, if not respect, after that by using threats
of violence and more than a little bullying. All of this reinforced by demonstrations of