"Harry Harrison - SSR 08 - The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the " - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"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 thatтАЩs not my last request."


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"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."

"Do you want to know?"

"Not really."

"Then I will be pleased to tell you. I assure you that there was extensive deliberation over the correct
method to be used. Thought was given to the firing squad, electrocution, poison gas-a number of
possibilities were actively considered when the law was passed. But all of them involve someone pulling
a switch or a trigger, and that would not be humane to the someone."

"Humane! What about the prisoner?"

"Of no importance. Your death has been decreed and will take place as soon as possible. This is what will
happen. You will be taken to a sealed chamber and chained there. The entrance will be locked. After this
the chamber will be flooded with water by an automatic device actuated by your body heat. It is always
there, always turned on. You alone will be responsible for your own execution. Now isn't that quite
humane?"

"Drowning is humane all of a sudden?"

"Possibly not. But you will be left a pistol containing a single bullet. You can commit suicide if you wish
to."

I opened my mouth to tell him what I thought of their humanity, but I was seized by many hands and
dragged forward before I could speak. The glass was whisked away-and so was I. Deep down to a dank
chamber, walls damp with water and covered with moss. A cuff was clamped around my ankle; a chain
ran from it to a staple in the wall. They all exited except for the Colonel who stood with his hand on the