"Richard Morgan - Market Forces" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morgan Richard)

is money in that account. Now swipe the card again.тАЩ

тАШBetter do as she says,тАЩ says the pushy customer behind him.

Martin swings on him, tensed.

тАШThis got something to do with you?тАЩ

тАШI am waiting.тАЩ

тАШWell, wait some fucking more.тАЩ He snaps his fingers in the manтАЩs face, dismissing him, and the pushy
customer flinches back. Martin turns back to the checkout girl. тАШNow, youтАФтАШ

The prod hits him in the side like a rude elbow. A heartbeat later the charge shocks him off the counter
and into a seemingly immense clear space. He hits the floor, smelling burnt fabric.

He hears Helen shriek. Sees confusedly from floor level. Boots in front of him and a voice that sounds
like tearing cardboard at a great height.

тАШI think youтАЩd better leave the store, sir.тАЩ

The security guard hauls him to his feet and props him against the counter again. A big man, swelling at
the waist but watchful and hard around the eyes. HeтАЩs been doing this for a long time, probably cut his
teeth on cordoned zone clubs before he got this gig. HeтАЩs shocked men before and Martin is out of office
clothes at four-thirty on a Wednesday afternoon, casual in faded jeans and a well-worn crew-neck
pullover that doesnтАЩt show what it was once worth. The security guard thinks he has the measure of this
one. He doesnтАЩt know, canтАЩt know.

Martin comes off the counter.

The palm heel strike smashes the guardтАЩs nose flat. The knee goes in at groin level. As the guard falls,
Martin drives into the base of his skull with one clenched fist.

The guard hits the ground a dead weight.

тАШStand where you are!тАЩ

Martin reels around and comes face to face with the guardтАЩs smaller, female partner just as she clears a
pistol from her holster. Still scrambled from the cattle prod, he lurches the wrong way, towards her, and
the guard blows his brains out all over his wife and son and the checkout and the checkout girl and all the
shiny packaged items on the belt that they can no longer afford.
 File #1:
Initial Investment
Chapter One

Awake.

Jackknifed there in sweat.

Fragments of the dream still pinning his breath in his throat and his face into the pillow, mind reeling in the