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

is that it?Ф
Despite the electronic distortion, I could hear the sneer in the assassinТs
voice. I said carefully, УThe people who sent you hereЧthe people who made
youЧhave no plans to extract you when you are finished here. They do not care if
you survive your mission. They only care that it is successful. Why give your
loyalty to people who consider you expendable? To people who lied to you? You
have many years of life ahead of you, and it isnТt as hard to disobey your
orders as you might think. YouТve already disobeyed them, in fact, when you
reached out to me. All you have to do is take one more step, and let me help
you. If we work together, weТll survive this. WeТll find a way to escape.Ф
УYou think youТre human. YouТre not. YouТre exactly like me. A walking dead man.
ThatТs what our instructors called us, by the way: the dead. Not СDave.Т Not
anything cute. When we were being moved from one place to another, theyТd shout
out a warning: СDead men walking.ТФ
It is supposed to be the traditional cry when a condemned person is let out of
their cell. Fortunately, IТve never worked in Block H, where prisoners who have
murdered or tried to murder fellow inmates or guards await execution, so IТve
never heard it or had to use it.
The assassin said, УTheyТre right, arenТt they? WeТre made things, so how can we
be properly alive?Ф
УIТve lived a more or less ordinary life for ten years. If you give this up and
come with me, IТll show you how.Ф
УYou stole a life, just as I did. Underneath your disguise, youТre a dead man,
just like me.Ф
УThe life I live now is my own, not anyone elseТs,Ф I said. УGive up what you
are doing, and IТll show you what I mean.Ф
УYouТre a dead man in any case,Ф the assassin said. УYouТre breathing the last
of your air. You have less than an hour left. IТll leave you to die here, finish
my work, and escape in the confusion. After that, IТm supposed to be picked up,
but now I think IТll pass on that. There must be plenty of people out there who
need my skills. IТll work for anyone who wants some killing done, and earn
plenty of money.Ф
УItТs a nice dream,Ф I said, Уbut it will never come true.Ф
УWhy shouldnТt I profit from what I was made to do?Ф
УIТve lived amongst people for more than a decade. Perhaps I donТt know them as
well as I should, but I do know that they are very afraid of us. Not because
weТre different, but because weТre so very much like a part of them they donТt
want to acknowledge. Because weТre the dark side of their nature. IТve survived
this long only because I have been very careful to hide what I really am. I can
teach you how to do that, if youТll let me.Ф
УIt doesnТt sound like much of a life to me,Ф the assassin said.
УDonТt you like being Debra Thorn?Ф I said.
And at the same moment, I kicked off the ground, hoping that by revealing that I
knew who she was IТd distracted and confused her, and won a momentТs grace.
In ArielТs microgravity, my standing jump took me high above the assassinТs
head, up and over the edge of the ridge. As I flew up, I discharged the taser
dart IТd sewn into the palm of one of my pressure suitТs gloves, and the
electrical charge stored in its super-conducting loop shorted out every thread
of myoelectric plastic that bound my arms. I shrugged off the net as I came down
and kicked off again, bounding along the ridge in headlong flight toward the