"Laurence M. Janifer - Martyr" - читать интересную книгу автора (Janifer Laurence M)

"Nothing," the girl said. The others murmured what seemed to be agreement. The leader said:
"Nothing at all. Talk is "cheap, misterтАФtoo cheap."
 "I agree," Carson said. Before anyone could move, he had drawn his revolver and shot Suessman
cleanly through the junction of neck and shoulderтАФone of the faster and bloodier of the absolute-fatal
targets.

"And that, of course, ended it," he said ten hours later.
"Insane," the President said. "Entirely insane. We'll do what we can for themтАФ"
Carson shook his head. "I shouldn't call them insane, sir," he said. "JustтАФunprepared. When they
saw Suessman fall, quite bloodily, twitching his life awayтАФ"
"He will be all right, won't he?" the President said.
"Of course," Carson said. "Acting and makeup, mostly; though I understand he will need attention for
shock, and for burns from the wadding of the blank with which I shot him. I'm afraid my aim is a bit rusty,
sirтАФnot enough practice time these days, reallyтАФand I came uncomfortably close. For which I
amтАФtrulyтАФextremely sorry."
The President snorted. "Don't be silly," he said. "Good as new in a week . . . but . . . Carson, I don't
understand. You shot your assistant. You pointed the gunтАФone gunтАФat the others. And they let you
walk over to the bomb and pick it up?"
"Not exactly, sir," Carson said. "They let me walk over to it and guard it until the chauffeurs could
come inтАФsignaled by intercom in my jacket, of courseтАФand pick it up. It was much heavier than
anything I ought to lift, sir: my doctor has been quite emphatic on the subject in recent years. Prudence
therefore dictatedтАФ"
"Yes, yes," the President said impatiently. "But, damn it, Carson: why? There they were, five of them.
Willing to be killed. Willing to set that thing off. They said so; they went on saying so."
"Quite," Carson said. "That was what I had counted on; that, and the fact that none of the five
practiced any formal religion."
"That none of theтАФwhat?"
Carson sighed. "Religion, sir," he said, "perhaps especially Christianity, though it would be difficult to
justify such a claimтАФreligion teaches us to contemplate death. It does other things, too. But it does that,
sir: it teaches us to become familiar with death, to accept it; to know it, sir, in short, in every detail."
The President shut his eyes, waited, opened them. "Well," he said. "Perhaps . . . perhaps it does. But
I don't seeтАФ"
"Most people under, perhaps, twenty-two," Carson said, "have never seen truly violent death. I
except some members of the militaryтАФperhaps the one in ninety who has any actual experience of
front-line warfare, and also the medical corps, and so forthтАФand of course I except, as well, residents of
those poor and hopeless neighborhoods we might as well call ghettos until some other word is available.
And I except a few others. But the average suburban person of sixteen, eighteen, nineteen, even twenty
simply has never seen violent death. He has seen carefully expurgated TV versions, perhaps, on news
broadcasts or some especially enthusiastic shows; he has seen a Hollywood version in the movies. But
the fact ... no."
The President nodded. "Agreed. Well?"
"They cannot conceive of death," Carson said, "or at least of such an unpleasant, violent and painful
death as a revolver provides. Or a plane crash . . . sir, if the plane carrying the bomb had killed a man in
its crash, the situation would not have arisen; violent and distasteful death would have been seen and
recognized by these children. But it was not; a life was saved therefore."
"At the cost of your ingenuity," the President said.
Carson shrugged. "At the cost of asking me toтАФor, rather, forcing me to request permission toтАФdo
my job," he said. "Nothing more. Certainly a lesser cost. But to continue . . . these children are
encouraged by the society we live in to ignore death and to think of a sort of eternal lifeтАФeven an eternal
youth. The advertisements, for instance; even more, such catchwords as `never trust anyone over thirty'