"Frank Herbert - The White Plague" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

Bley's Ford had been selected because of this Wednesday punctuality. There
was also the fact that Bley did not garage his car where he and Tessie lived
in Davitt Road. The Ford was parked outside beside a thick yew hedge, which
could be approached from the street along a path shielded by a parked van.
There had been a van parked in this covering position the previous night.
Neighbors had seen it but no one had thought to comment at the time.

"There were often vehicles parked in that place," one said. "How were we to
know?"

The watcher at the Film Society Building had many names but he had been born
Joseph Leo Herity. He was a small, solidly fleshy man with a long, thin face
and pale, almost translucent skin. Herity wore his blond hair combed straight
back and hanging almost to the collar. His light brown eyes were deeply set
and he had a pugged nose with prominent nostrils from which hair protruded.

From his fourth-floor vantage, Herity commanded an overview of the entire
setting for the drama he was about to ignite. Directly across from him, the
tall trees of the green formed a verdant wall enclosing the flow of vehicles
and pedestrians. The Robert Emmet statue stood opposite his window and, to
the left of it, there was a black-on-white sign to the public toilets. Bley's
Ford had stopped with the traffic just to the left of Herity's window. A
white tour bus with blue-and-red stripes down its side loomed over the small
Ford. Traffic fumes were thick even at the fourth-floor level.

Herity checked Bley's license number to be certain. Yes -- JIA-5028. Then
there was the crumpled left front wing.

The traffic began to inch forward, then stopped once more.

Herity glanced left at the Grafton Street corner. He could see the signs of
the Toy World shop and the Irish Permanent Society on the ground floor of the
red brick building soon to be taken over by the Ulster Bank. There had been
some protest about that, one ragged march with a few signs, but it had died
out quickly. The Ulster Bank had powerful friends in the government.

Barney and his lot, Herity thought. They think we're ignorant of their scheme
to make a peace with the Ulster boys!

Again, Bley's Ford inched toward the corner, but once more was stopped. There
was heavy foot traffic where Grafton took off from St. Stephen's Green.

A bald-headed man in a dark blue suit had stopped almost directly beneath
Herity's window and was examining the cinema marquee. Two young men pushing
bicycles threaded their way past the bald-headed man.

The traffic remained stopped.

Herity looked down at the top of Bley's car. So innocent-looking, that car.