"Daniel Keys Moran - A Tale of the Continuing Time 04 - The AI War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moran Daniel Keys)

had his hands snaked behind his back. Aside from that the SpaceFarers hadn't touched him. Vomit
smeared his chin and chest; the smell of it overwhelmed the small brig.

Trent said, "You broke my ribs, you know that?"

The assassin flashed an abrupt exhausted grin. "I was trying to kill you. I'd say you got off light."

"Do you know how many times this has happened to me?" Trent demanded. "Murderers breaking my
ribs? Three. Counting this one, I mean, only two if you don't count this one."

"I guess you're counting it," said the assassin.

"You bet I am," Trent said darkly. "The only thing you get points for is that we're in the Belt."

The assassin looked at Reverend Andy, floating in the brig doorway just behind Trent, and said, "Does
he always talk like this?"

"He means," Reverend Andy explained, "that if you had broken his ribs under gravity they would be
hurting more right now, and then he would be angrier at you." He looked at Trent. "But the second time
you got your ribs broken was escaping from Luna, right? It was the mass driver that broke them. Not a
murderer at all."

"No," Trent corrected him, "it was Mohammed Vance. He pumped about twenty rounds out of an
autoshot at me right before the mass driver shot me off Luna. So the first time it was Melissa du Bois
kicking me when I wasn't looking, and then it was Mohammed Vance shooting me while I watched him."

"Oh."

"And now this guy," Trent said. He turned back to the assassin. "The third rib-breaking murderer," he
concluded. "So what's your name, anyway?"

"Chuck," the man said after a pause.

"Chuck what?"

"Smith."

"Right."

"Wait," the assassin said, "no, wait, wait, Jones."

Trent laughed out loud. "Oh, come on."

Reverend Andy said, "What? What?"

Trent was still grinning at the assassin. "Chuck Jones was an animator. From the Golden Age. Did a lot of
the great Bugs Bunny and Road Runner cartoons."

The assassin's expression changed slightly. "Don't forget Duck Dodgers in the 24-┬╜th Century."