"Tom Kratman - A Desert Called Peace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kratman Tom)

jinni. That his enemies thought him evil was . . . pleasant. Even more pleasant was the sight of his
enemies, beaten and bleeding, captive and bound.
The Jinn looked over those enemies in the late afternoon sun. Sinking in the west, the sun's light was
carved by the mountains to cast long, sharp shadows across the ground. Much of that ground was
covered with the head-bowed, broken prisoners.
One of those captives, Abdul Aziz ibn Kalb, held his bleeding head upright. Abdul Aziz glared hate
at his captors. These were a mix of Pashtun mercenaries тАУ tall and light eyed; light skinned they would
have been, too, had the sun not burned them red-brown тАУ and shorter, darker men. All were heavily
armed. All sneered back the hate Abdul Aziz felt, mixing with that hate a full measure of disgust and
contempt.
Aziz's hate mixed with and fed on fear. Along with several hundred other male prisoners, and nearly
a thousand women and children, Aziz waited to hear his fate. The male prisoners' hands and legs were
taped together. Not far away, the women and children waited unbound. The two groups were close
enough together that Abdul Aziz could see the non-combatants as well as a small group of his enemies
ascending a low hill to his front.
Leading that group, Abdul Aziz saw, was a uniformed man, medium in height, and with his face and
head wrapped with a keffiyah. Another looked oriental. Three more were dressed much as any mullahs
would be. A sixth wore the white dress of the Emirate of Doha. The last was another man in uniform,
bearing the rank badges of a subadar. Trimly bearded, tall and slender, with bright gray eyes, the
subadar looked Pashtun to Abdul Aziz.
That man in the lead partially unwrapped the keffiyah from around his head. Aziz had never seen
him before, but had heard enough descriptions to recognize the "Blue Jinn." The Jinn paused and lit a
cigarette. He puffed it contemplatively for a few moments. Then he sat back easily in a chair, almost a
throne, that had been prepared for him by his followers out of hastily felled and trimmed trees. Even at
this distance Abdul Aziz saw the eyes that gave the Jinn his name. Though it was just a trick of the sun,
the eyes seemed to glow from the inside like malevolent coals.
A dark-clad, bearded mullah walked to the microphone of a portable public address set standing in
front of the chair and began to speak.
"I have consulted," he announced, "with the man you probably know as the Blue Jinn, and whom
you see to my right, concerning your fate. He, in accordance with the Sharia, has turned the general
resolution of your cases over to myself and my fellow mullahs. We have pronounced sentence of death
upon you, in accordance with the will of Allah, for complicity in murder."
It was widely speculated that the mullah only consulted the quarter gold Boerrand the Jinn allegedly
paid him for each desired "legal" death sentence he passed on. The Jinn never admitted this. Neither did
he deny it.
"Your young children shall be taken back to your enemy's country," the mullah continued. "Your
women, and the girls over twelve, are awarded to his Pashtun Scouts as prizes. Mr. Yamaguchi," and the
mullah's head nodded to indicate the oriental man who had accompanied the party, "and Mr. Al Ajami,"
another head nod, "represent certain interests in Yamato and Doha that might wish to buy some of these
women and girls from the Scouts. Having consulted with the Jinn I have informed him that there is no
religious prohibition to this, that you are all apostates and your women may properly be enslaved. For his
part, he says he could care less what happens to them so long as it is within the law."
A wild and heartrending moan emerged from the cluster of women as the grinning, leering Pashtun
began to prod them away to the processing area. Aziz felt a sudden relief that his wife had been spared
the ignominy of rape followed by sale into prostitution.
"As for the rest of you, as I said, you shall die. But the Jinn tells me to inform you that he is
solicitous of your souls."
The mullah stopped speaking and backed away from the microphone. The Blue Jinn stood and
took the mullah's place. He spoke in decent Arabic, Aziz was surprised to discover, though his accent
was somewhat heavy.