"Tom Purdom-Toys" - читать интересную книгу автора (Purdom Tom)

other as much as they were yelling at him.
"Quit acting like crybabies," the boy with the rifle yelled. "Nobody made you do anything. Turn around
and make another charge."
"What good'll that do? He's in the water with the rest of them. They're gone. We're gonna go to jail."
"My mother'll lock me up and throw the key away. Darn you, Petey. Darn you."
The smoke thinned. Five shadows emerged from the gloom. A girl yelled.
"Get him," the boy with the rifle yelled. "Charge!"
Two kids lowered their poles and ran down the walk. Edelman gripped his pole slantwise across his
chest and waited for them with his eyes on the shadow that looked like the boy with the rifle.
"Banzai!"
"Uhuru!"
"Aim for the legs!"
They stopped just before they reached him. Their poles made little circles in the air as they searched
for an opening. The gas masks hid their eyes, but their knees were shaking.
He feinted at the kid on the left. The kid stepped back and the butt of his pole cracked against the
pole on his right. Edelman lashed back and forth-- CLAT! CLAT! He stepped between them and threw
it at the boy with the rifle.
The boy yelled and threw up the rifle. Edelman ran down the walk yelling like a wild man and launched
a long kick. The gun flew out of the boy's hands; he grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him against the
back wall.
He pivoted like an hysterical dancer and pointed the sonic beam at the two girls who had been
standing near the boy. One of the girls picked up the pole he had just thrown and backed away from
him." Leave me alone. Leave me alone."
The other girl howled. She grabbed the pole out of the first girl's hands and lunged.
"Get him! Kill him!"
The needle shot toward Edelman's leg. The two boys yelled behind his back. He sidestepped and
danced behind the girl's back. The last seconds left in the sonic beam banged into her head and he
snatched the pole out of her hands.
He kicked the rifle into the pool and stepped toward the two kids coming at him. His pole cracked
like a pistol when it hit. One pole bounced off the ceiling and the other pole splashed into the water.
The two kids backed away with their hands raised defensively. One kid cursed at him. The other kid
turned around and started crying.
The girl who had grabbed the pole ran over to the boy who had been holding the gun. She turned
toward Edelman and raised her first. "You toad! Why couldn't you leave us alone? What difference did it
make to you?"
The elevator door slid open. The boy gripped the girl's arm. The boy, who was crying, ran up to the
wall and started beating on it with his fists. "She'll never let me leave the house again. She'll spank me until
I get sick to my stomach."
The boy who had been holding the rifle straightened up. "Enjoy yourself, Coppy," he said. "Someday
I'll be just as big as you are and twice as mean."
"You don't have to try very hard," Fracarro said. "If he'd wanted to, he could have pulled that gun on
his hip and sent half of you to the hospital as soon as he stepped out of the elevator. If you'd tried a stunt
like this with the kind of cops they had fifty years ago, you'd probably be dead now."
"There's a police van waiting outside," Edelman said. "We'll take you up in the elevator two at a time.
It's up to you. You can go with us now, or you can stay here and face your parents. You'll be arrested
later anyway-- you've committed several very serious crimes and we aren't going to ignore them-- so you
may as well come in now and be safe."
"I thought you were trying to protect us," the boy said. "You don't have much respect for truth, do
you?"
"I'm offering you the best protection we've got," Edelman said. "What do you expect me to do-- stand