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

supplies? You just left them there?"

Mwili took a deep breath and allowed it to escape quietly. Why, no, father, he
thought, I packed all three hundred kilos of food, seedlings, chemicals and
electronics into my back pocket and carried them home! Of course I left them
there!

Aloud, the boy said, "I hid them."

"You hid them? Where?"

"Behind the center of the Three Rocks. Under a tarp, covered with dirt. They won't
be visible unless you are looking for themтАФ"

"And you think anybody who sees an abandoned flitter won't look around, fool?"

"Baba, what else was I to do?" Careful! That was dangerously close to the sin of
Impertinence.

But the smaller sin was lost in the larger for his father. "Three months' worth of
supplies! The seedlings will likely freeze! And there are dust dogs who prowl the
rocks!"

There was nothing more Mwili could say. The last dust dog seen within a hundred
klicks had been spotted more than five years past, and moving away, at that. The
tarp and din would probably protect the seedlings. And the chances of anybody
passing along that stretch of road for the next week were slimmer than MwiliтАЩs pet
ferret.

The hard-faced man raised the strap. "You should have stayed with the supplies, to
protect them against thieves or animals! I would have come looking for you, in a
day or two. But no, you wanted the comfort of a soft bed, the warmth of a fire,
over our precious supplies! Kneel!"

'Mwili dropped to his knees, landing harder for his exhaustion. He leaned forward,

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 Perry, Steve - The 97th Step


bending at the waist, hunching his "back. He heard the whistle of the thick leather
just before he felt the slap and burn below his shoulders. He did not cry out, for he
had long since learned that only made his father more angry at him for being
weak.

'"Pray!" His father's voice was a roar. Pray for your sins, boy!"

Mwili prayed, but could his father hear his thoughts, he would have swung the
strap harder. He prayed for a lightning bolt to strike his father. For the earth to
open and swallow 'him, forтАФ