"Dead Men Walking" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

what sheТd been sent here to do. Because it was her mission.
A light was winking on my head-up displayЧthe emergency short-range,
line-of-sight walkie-talkie. When I responded, an electronically distorted voice
said, УAre you alone?Ф
УAbsolutely.Ф
УWho are you?Ф
IТd stripped all identifying tags from my suit before setting off, but the
doppelganger who had killed Debra Thorn and taken her place was pointing a gun
at my head and it seemed advisable to tell her my name. She was silent for a
moment, no doubt taking a look at my file. I said, УIТm not the doppelganger of
Roy Bruce, if thatТs what youТre thinking. The person I killed and replaced was
a gene wizard by the name of Sharwal Jah Sharja.Ф
I briefly told the assassin the story I have already told you. When I was
finished, she said, УYouТve really been working here for eight years?Ф
УEight and a half.Ф I had made a very bad mistake about my captorТs motives, but
I must have piqued her curiosity, for otherwise I would already be dead. And
even if I couldnТt talk my way out of this and persuade her to spare me, I still
had a couple of weapons she hadnТt foundЕ I risked a lie, said that her net had
compromised my suitТs thermal integrity. I told her that I was losing heat to
the frozen ground, that I would freeze to death if I didnТt get up.
She told me I could sit up, and to do it slowly.
As I got my feet under me, squatting on my haunches in front of her, I glanced
up at the top of the ridge and made a crucial triangulation.
She said, УMy instructors told me that I would live no more than a year.Ф
УPerhaps they told you that you would burn briefly but very brightlyЧthatТs what
they told me. But they lied. I expect they lied about a lot of things, but I
promise to tell you only the truth. We can leave here, and go anywhere we want
to.Ф
УI have a job to finish.Ф
УPeople to kill, riots to start.Ф
The assassin took a long step sideways to the cart, took something the size of a
basketball from the net behind its seat, bowled it toward me. It bounced slowly
over the dusty ground and ended up between my legs: the severed head of an old
woman, skin burnt black with cold, eyes capped by frost.
УThe former leader of the parliament of Sparta, Tethys,Ф the assassin said. УI
left the body pinned to the ground in one of the fields where her friends work,
with an amusing little message.Ф
УYou are trying to start a war amongst the prisoners. Perhaps the people who
sent you here are hoping that the scandal will close the facility. Perhaps they
think it is the only chance theyТll have of freeing their comrades. Who are you
working for, by the way?Ф
УIТll ask the questions,Ф the assassin said.
I asked her how she would escape when she was finished. УThereТs a special team
on the way. If youТre still here when they arrive, theyТll hunt you down and
kill you.Ф
УSo thatТs why you came after me. You were frightened that this team would find
you while they were hunting me.Ф
She may have been young, but she was smart and quick.
I said, УI came because I wanted to talk to you. Because youТre like me.Ф
УBecause after all these years of living amongst humans, you miss your own kind,