"Holly Lisle - Minerva Wakes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

CHAPTER 1

"No! Please don't shoot!" The hospital's data processing
director groveled in the aisle. "I'll never do it again, I prom-
ise! Just let me liveтАФ" Mrs. Mindley was on her knees,
begging and sobbing. Minerva had. waited a long time to see
her like that.

"Too late, you inconsiderate cowтАФyou've blocked the
aisle one time too many. Now you die!" The machine gun
in Minerva's hands jumped and. snarled, and Minerva
gleefully splattered hits of Mrs. Mindley over the entire
soup section.

Minerva Kiakra's lips curled into a tight smile as she imag-
ined that scene. It- beat reality. Reality was that Mrs-.
Mindley's shopping cart angled across most of the
Soup/Sauce/Pasta aisle, allowing no passage, while Mrs-
Mindley's wide-load rear end blocked the rest. The woman
bent over the display of Tomato and Rice soup, carefully
choosing cansтАФMinerva was unable to determine the
method the other woman was using to establish can ripe-
ness, but three out of every tour of the little suckers were
obviously failing some sort of test.

The Chicken and Noodle soup was tantalizingly within
view, and completely out of reach.

"***Chicken and Noodle soupтАФ6 cans!!!" Dariyl had
marked on the shopping list.

2 HoUy Lisle

Minerva stared at the list, and gritted her teeth, and

waited.

But patience wasn't going to work. Minerva suspected
malice in Mrs. Minctle/s glacial slowness. She was going to
have to be direct. Toughness was what the situation called

for, she decided.

She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Mrs. Mindley, but

I'm in a huny."

The woman didn't even look up. She just waved her hand
in one of those dismissive "wait a minute" gestures that
meant she'd move when she was damned good and ready,