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

Something about him reminded Wilks of himself at that age; maybe it was the build or the hair ...
maybe the blankness. He could relate to that.



Wilks had grown up in a small town on Earth in the southern United States, raised by his aunt; his
mother had died of breast cancer when he was five, after his father had left the two of them the year
before. Aunt Carrie was nice enough, but didn't spend much time with him; she worked the night shift at a
rest home and was rather indifferent to his life. Little Davey Arthur Wilks had enough to eat and clothes
to wear, and that was her responsibility as she saw it, that and nothing else.

Carrie Greene did not understand much of anything, and sure as hell not little boys.

They didn't discuss his parents often; his mother was a saint who had nothing but love for Davey,
his father a no-account bastard son of a bitch who had nothing but his own best interests at heart.
DavidтАФwho hated being called "Davey"тАФwasn't so sure. He couldn't really remember either of them,
and although he knew his mother wasn't gonna come back, he did dream of his father coming to get him
one day, standing on their weather-beaten porch with a smile for his son and things to play with and a
new place to live. His dad was handsome and strong and smart and didn't take shit from nobody.

It was late summer, two days after his eleventh birthday. David lay on the floor of their small, stuffy
living room with his newest Danno Kruise, Action-Man comic. Danno was in the middle of kicking some
serious bad-guy butt when there was a knock at the door. Aunt Carrie was "resting her eyes" in the back
bedroom, so David answered, expecting a salesman.

A tall man holding a brightly wrapped box stood there.

"David?" The guy was badly in need of a shave and wore a shabby suit a few years out of date, the
synlin frayed at the cuffs.

"Yeah, why?" David stepped back from the door a little; he didn't know this man. This man with
bright blue eyes ...

"AhтАФwell, hi. I knew it was your birthday, andтАФwell, I was in town. Here." The stranger pushed
the box toward him.

David took it and looked at him. "Who are you?"

"Oh, hell." The stranger smiled weakly. "I'm Ben. I amтАФwas a friend of your mother's." Ben
looked at his watch, then back at David. "Happy birthday, Davey. Listen, I gotta get going, I'm supposed
to meet someone ... you know how it is." He looked at David helplessly.

David stared, unable to speak. His father's name was Ben. He clutched the package tightly. The
wrapping crinkled under his grip. Ben.

The man turned and walked away, without looking back. David stood there for a long time before
he closed the door. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't true, that this Ben wasn't his dad. It couldn't be.
He wouldn't just come here, drop this present off, and leave. He wouldn't do that.

"Davey?" His aunt, risen from her nap, padded toward him. "Was that somebody at the door?