"Dean Ing - Soft Targets" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ing Dean)

There would be time for calisthenics before mak-ing the buy.
He began with simple hand and foot exercises, progressed to ritual defensive maneuvers,
dervished through a repertoire of offensive moves, breathing easily in marvelous silence as
negotiated the furniture. No surplus flesh masked the tendons that slid just beneath the skin.
knee was solid again, so he covertly eyed the pencil mark he had made chin-high on the d
moulding. He took one bare-footed step as if to flee but rebounded, the other leg sweep-ing
flexed, then extended in a vicious slant-ing blur.
The ball of the foot gently swept within cen-timeters of his target, then thrust away. He lan
quietly and rolled, to freeze into a crouch, mouth open to quiet his breathing. His weaknesse
martial arts were philosophical ones. He knew few peers in the prime requisites for unarmed com
speed, silence, ferocity.
Not once had he made enough noise to excite comment from the next apartment. He was ple
with himself but he was not smiling. In his apparatus of deceit, the smile was a favored tool
essayed two more flying side kicks, test-ing his eyes, his precision, his right shin's peroneus lon
muscle that really made the move so murderous, and stopped only because of a creaky board in
floor. Satisfied, he ta-pered off with mild arm and leg flexures before his shower. The cold w
sent blades of pain twisting up his limbs. Now he smiled, and turned the water on full force.
His scrub disturbed the flexible cobbler's ce-ment on his fingertips and he applied a fresh coa
When dry, its sheen was unseen as it filled the tiny whorls of flesh. Now his touch was anonym
matching the prosthetic tip of his left small finger.
He dressed quickly, choosing the ice-blue silk dress shirt and the deeper blue conservative ja
above dove-gray trousers. He shrugged into the harness, placed his piece carefully in the ho
against spring pressure, and decided he would have time to find chemicals at supply houses enr
to the big buy. He flipped through the thick yellow-page Toronto direc-tory, made several notati
and checked the window telltales. Then, taking the attache case, he paused to emplace a telltale
the bottom door hinge before sliding out to the hall.
The garage attendant wheeled his rented Toyota to him, proof that no unfriendly hands had da
under the car. Then he drove down Bathurst on his shopping foray. At the paint store, paying
the aluminum powder, he asked to use a telephone.
A young woman's voice tinned through the earpiece, "Salon du Nord," making it sound li
beauty parlor.
"Monsieur Pelletier, s'il vous plait," he replied. His accent gave away less in French tha
English. There were advantages to operating in a bilingual country.
Pelletier was in, Pelletier was oozing charm. Pelletier had the stuff. "But of course," he s
"packaged as you requested, Mr. Trnka."
"
Quality assurance tests? "
"Of course. I believe your appointment was this morning."
"Precisely," said the little man, pronouncing his favorite English word. Though fluent in En-g
he had chosen the name 'Trnka' because so few people could say whether his accent was
Czech. Once he had preferred the Turkish 'Jemil,' but no longer. Turkish was too close.
reaffirmed the appointment and minutes later drove into an area of new light industry.
Salon du Nord occupied half of a two-story building. Its logo phrase, "ElectroniqueтАФReche
et Perfectionnement" had its English equivalent below: "Electronic R & D." He had dealt with
firm only through an intermediary, but Pelletier was known as a useful source.
He was immediately shown to Pelletier's of-fice. Pelletier was short, scarcely taller than his vi
but heavier by a good twenty kilos, all smiles and reeking of bonhomie. 'Trnka' smiled, detesting
on sight. "I trust you're enjoying your stay in Toronto, Mr. Trnka," Pelletier be-gan.
"Very much; but I am pressed for time," the little man replied, placing the attache case in his la
Pelletier sighed. "Of course." His soft hands reached into his desk, reappeared with a plastic