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

"Increased violence at mental institutions, an upswing in the number of nasty cultists coming out
of the woodwork, an increase in psychiatric admissions?"
"All of the above. And the fourthтАФan increase in certain kinds of people finding excuses to bug
out of the area."
"Like?"
"Most of the Rom are gone. Flat gone is what Bunco tells me. So far as we can tell, the great
majority of our regular gypsy population pulled out and headed north last September. And we're down to
half the usual population of 'psychic advisors,' and it ain't 'cause Bunco is busting 'em. It's getting so that
Bunco can't even find them. I figure the real ones left early, the marginally sensitive bailed out this month,
and all we're left with now is the flimflam artists, or the ones too desperate poor to leave."
She pursed her lips, looking thoughtful. He hit the brakes as a pink-beige Cadillac with a vanity
license plate saying TOMMY H and an "I love Tulsa" sticker cut right across his front bumper.
"Asshole," he muttered under his breath. "I heart Tulsa. Jerk."
"Accident looking for a place to happen," she supplied, absently.
Then, a fraction of a second later, the look of abstraction vanishedтАФand she seized the steering
wheel and yanked it violently right, sending the Ghia careening across three lanes of traffic with a shriek
of tortured rubber. Behind them came the sound of frantic horns and the scream of brakesтАФ
And at exactly the same moment, the driver of the Cadillac that had cut them off made a fatal
misjudgment.
He tried the same maneuver that he'd inflicted on them a moment earlier, only this time it was
with the semi-rig in the far left lane. Unfortunately, the driver of the semi chose the same instant to
accelerate.
The semi clipped the rear of the Cadillac, sending it spinning right across the slot they'd occupied
until Diana had wrenched the wheel over.
Before Mark even had time to blink, the Caddy spun across their lane behind them, rolled,
rammed into an overpass, and burst into flame.
"My GodтАФ" He started to pull over; the automatic reaction of any cop. Diana, face as white as
skim milk, forestalled him.
 "GoтАФjust go," she choked. "HeтАФyou won't help him."
After one look at her deathly pale face, he obeyed.
He had forgotten thatтАФamong other thingsтАФDi was an empathтАФsensitive not to thoughts, but to
feelings and emotions.
My GodтАФshe must have felt the whole thingтАФ
Silence reigned for so long that he finally reached over and turned on the radio, unable to stand it
any longer.
"AhтАФ" After a song-and-half she shook her hair back and massaged her temples; her color was
returning. "That was not good. That's what I get for unshielding on the highway."
"Yeah, well." He negotiated a tricky bit of driving to get around an elderly Buick doing forty. "I'm
glad some of your other talents are still working."
She grimaced. "Not as well as I'd like, nor as predictably."
"YouтАФ" He took another glance at her. She looked okay, now. Pretty well back to normal. "You
ready for the debriefing again?"
"NoтАФbut go on, anyway. Instinct says I'm late getting on this one as it is."
"Okay. So far as the Chief is concerned, this whole mess started about three or four months agoтАФ
"
"I take it you think differently."
"Uh-huh. I think it began about eight or nine months ago. We started to get the cattle mutilations
about then, and I'm convinced that they're related."
Now she looked at him, quizzically. "There's something you're not telling me. About why you're
convinced. Confession time."