"Steve Perry - Matador 5 - The 97th Step" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

Mwili stared at the little electronic caller for a moment, before walking to the
window. He touched a control, and the triple-paned thermoplast grated as it slid
over its warped track. Cold air rushed into the small room and enveloped both boy

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 Perry, Steve - The 97th Step


and ferret in its frigid arms.

"Go," he said gently. "Go and make a meal of some fat shamba rodent stealing the
grain. Do it whenever you wish from now on. Be free." He put the ferret upon the
sill, and it. was but a heartbeat before the creature scurried down the outer wall
and ran into the darkness. It did not look back.

Before he closed the window, Mwili held the caster like a marble and thumbed it
into the darkness after the ferret. There would be no call to return at the next
dawn, nor any dawn thereafter. Mwili had always treated the ferret well, loving it
as much as he knew how to love anything. Or anybody. But he had proscribed its
life by keeping it caged, just as his own life was limited. It would not do to leave
his friend imprisoned while he escaped. Not after he'd finally realized the kinship.

He stared into the darkness, and for the first time in years, he felt tears form and
begin to stream down his face. He closed the window before they could freeze on
his cheeks. Farewell, little brother. Farewell.

It was midmorning before he had the coil rewound yet again. He trudged to the
south field, where his father worked the dying soil with the old tractor. The
vehicle was even older than the flitter, hardly more than a repellor plate with
antique ultrasonic diggers and cutters. Amidst the cloud of dust, his father looked
like a statue riding the tractor, both man and machine covered with the powdery
earth, a red-brown hue, a single biomechanical unit.

He waited while his father finished the row, then brought the tractor to idle near
where Mwili stood.

"Yes?"

"I have finished the coil, Baba."

"Took you long enough."

"I'll go to repair the flitter now."

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 Perry, Steve - The 97th Step



"Be quick about it."