"Karin Lowachee - Warchild" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lowachee Karin)

with the only people you knew, was already destroyed. TheyтАЩd
taken your leader. Evan couldnтАЩt protect you if he couldnтАЩt
protect himself.
Like Mama and Daddy. Your heart hurt.
Sano said, тАЬI heard one of them. When they took me. WeтАЩre
going to Slavepoint.тАЭ
тАЬYouтАЩre lying,тАЭ Tammy said. тАЬSlavepointтАЩs a bogeyman tale.тАЭ
тАЬItтАЩs not! I heard!тАЭ
тАЬYouтАЩre only seven. What do you know?тАЭ
тАЬI heard! TheyтАЩre gonna sell us to bad ships and weтАЩre gonna
have to scrub decks and eat old food our whole lives!тАЭ
You knew the stories. Parents said sometimes when they
were mad at you that theyтАЩd dump you off at Slavepoint. The
senior kids like Shane said the pirates met there with nice
merchant ship kids that theyтАЩd taken in some raid, or they
captured goody Universalist ship kids and traded them at
Slavepoint for drugs and guns and money, and you had to
serve the pirates in all sorts of nasty ways that might mean
cleaning out their refuse cansтАФbut if you were really bad they
dumped you on the strits. And everybody knew aliens were
worse than pirates because aliens ate you.
You found it hard to believe aliens could be worse than what
youтАЩd met.
тАЬShut up!тАЭ EvanтАЩs voice, out of the dark. тАЬJust shut up, all of
you.тАЭ
EvanтАЩs parents were dead too, probably. And Shane. Maybe
theyтАЩd died together, protecting engineering.
All those bad thoughts floated in your head and you just
wanted them to stop.
All those thoughts stank like the room. YouтАЩd seen a toilet
and a sink when the hatch had opened, but it was hard for the
boys to aim in the dark. You hadnтАЩt eaten in more than a shift,
probably, because you didnтАЩt want to use the dirty toilet.
You sat with your arms around your knees and rocked to
pass the time. Every now and again Sano would call, тАЬJos?тАЭ
And youтАЩd answer, тАЬYeah.тАЭ So they knew you were alive.
Then one shift you woke up to silence. YouтАЩd slept hard,
harder than normal, like that time a couple years ago when
Daddy gave you an injet after you fell off the bed and knocked
your chin. That injet had made you sleep hard too, and took
away the pain. Now you were starving and couldnтАЩt even hear
breathing.
тАЬEvan?тАЭ Darkness and silence. тАЬTammy? Sano?тАЭ One by one
you called their names but nobody answered. You felt
something building inside that went far beyond fear. A scream
that would never be loud enough.
тАЬEVAN! TAMMY! SANO! ADALIA! MASAYO! WHELAN!
PAUL! KASPAR! INDIRA!тАЭ
At the top of your lungs. A plea. A chant. Until you had no
voice left, until their names became desperate whispers on the