"Mercedes Lackey - Tregarde 2 - Burning Water" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

TWO


Detective Mark Valdez ignored the horde of harried travelers crowding up against him and
searched the TV monitor for the Amerine Airways flight from Hartford. Thanks to being shoved he
managed to overlook it twice before finally spotting the entry.
Every time you turn around, they're changing schedules, changing flight numbers on youтАФoh
great. It's coming in at the other terminal, of course. Halfway across the county. I hate DFW. It was bad
enough before, but when they started letting everybody back inside the terminal five years ago, it turned
into a zoo. Sometimes I wish they'd go back to the old security system: nobody gets inside without a ticket.
He elbowed his way out of the crowd and trudged along the concourse thinking longingly of a
cold beer.
Huh-uh, Valdez. No beer. You're still on duty.
He spotted a concession stand that hadn't a line of customers twenty deep and settled for a large
Coke instead. His head hurt, and he hoped the caffeine would do him some good. His feet hurt, too; well,
that was par for the course for a cop. Normally people gave cops a wide berth, so he'd have been spared
the pushing and shovingтАФbut he wasn't in the uniform. He was plainclothes division, and good God, he
especially wouldn't wear the monkey suit on this pickup. SoтАФhe'd gotten jostled just like everybody else.
There was a sickly boom-boom right behind him, and a mechanical, pseudo-female voice
bellowedтАФ
"Amerine Airways shuttle cart in motion. Puh-leez stand clear of the cart."
He jumped, scuttled out of the way with the rest of the shell-shocked walkers, and the cart sailed
by. He felt like cussing the driver out, but he was just too tired. His ribs were sore where somebody had
elbowed him, and his shoulder was aching because he'd pulled a muscle restraining the reaction that would
have sent the elbower crashing into the wall. That would have been a little hard to explain to the Chief,
seeing as said elbower had been an eightyish old lady with blue hair. And very sharp elbows.
I hope to hell Di is traveling light. This hasn't been a good day.
He'd been up since four ack emma, so he was tired enough that when he got to the moving
sidewalks linking the two terminals, he let them carry him along, squashed over on the right side so that
stews and athletic types could pass him. He savored the cool bite of his drink, ignoring the annoyed glares
of those who squeezed past him. The echoing and re-echoing of voices along the concourse was enough to
drive anybody with sensitive hearing right into catalepsy. And all the cross-echoes distorted the boarding
and arrival announcements into unintelligible gibberish.
Sounds like a bunch of religious yo-yos speaking in tongues. You'd think they'd do something
about the acoustics of these places while they're on the drawing board. I think this terminal was designed
by a reincarnation of Torquemada. God, I hate DFW!
By the time the third walkway terminated, he had finished the Coke down to the iceтАФof which
there had been considerably more than cola. He dumped the cup in an overflowing trash receptacle, and
headed for gate eighteen.
He was way early, and found himself a seat in the no-smoking section away from everyone else,
loosening his tie and collar as he sagged into the uncomfortable plastic chair. Dallas was experiencing an
abnormally hot spellтАФeighty degrees in January. It seemed rather like they'd gone directly from fall into
summer, with no spring, and only a nod to winter. And as usual, the air-conditioning system of DFW
Airport was not coping well. In fact, knowing the current state of things, it might not be working at all.
Certainly it was hot, damp, and smelly in the terminalтАФnot much different than the atmosphere outside.
He slumped and tried to relax, then sat bolt upright as a horrible thought hit him. He hadn't talked
with Di since he'd asked her to come. She'd sent him her flight numberтАФwhich had changed, of courseтАФ
but other than that he hadn't heard a word from her. While Diana wasn't exactly chatty at the best of times,