"Steve Perry - Aliens 03 - The Female War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

"Come and feed!" he shouted. "Eat of the flesh! Devour the old, become one with the Goddess!"
He dropped the knife to the floor and thrust one bloodied hand into the boy's gut, then lifted it to his own
mouth. Dark figures stepped onto the stage, tattered men and women converging on the corpse, a dozen
or more, faces crazed, laughing loudly, reaching, pullingтАФ

Dane ranted on, his mouth dripping blood, his voice cracking. "We are the Chosen! We will
become! We willтАФ"

Billie hit the command button convulsively, breaking the trance. The screen went to static and dimly,
as if from another place, she heard a commercial for a retirement complex begin. She shivered all over.
She stood, knocked over her chair. She ran blindly away from the madness, her hand over her mouth.
There was a waste bin in the corner of the room; she stumbled to it and vomited. Retched again and
again.

Slowly her surroundings came back into focus. Her spasms subsided into hitching, ragged breaths.
"Okay," she said, "okay, okay." She brushed at her watering eyes. The dreams had been too much for
their minds to bear on top of watching their world crumble, their families killed. But not her. They were
sick, demented; she was here, and would change things.
 "Okay," she said again, and straightened up. The smell of vomit was overpowering and sour, and
she stepped away from the bin. She felt a sudden fury at what the queen had done. Her and her
goddamn calling, urging those people into madness. Giving the unbalanced a reason to kill ...

Billie sniffled and wiped her mouth with the back of one shaky hand, then took a deep breath. The
boy's dying face would come back to her later, she knew; there was nothing she could do to change that.
For now, she would concentrate on what she could change.



Wilks gently cupped his hand over one of Leslie's soft, small breasts; she stretched leisurely and
covered his hand with her own, smiling.

They lay nude in a tangle of sweaty sheets, the musk of recent sex in the air. Wilks propped himself
on one elbow beside her. He felt relaxed and at peace with his body. Leslie was a good lover, confident
in her abilities without being assuming.

"Mmm," she said, and opened her eyes to look at him. "Not bad, Sarge. You should be promoted."

Wilks smiled. "Yeah, I think I make a pretty good drill sergeant. Drill, drill, drill ..."

Leslie made a face. "On the other hand, your jokes leave something to be desired. Like humor."

"What? Hey, I'm funny."

"Sheeit."

They lay still for a moment, preoccupied with their own thoughts.

Wilks remembered his conversation with Bako. The evidence of the mother queen's existence was
not overwhelming in his own mind, so proving it to somebody who didn't know BillieтАФ specifically, to