"Resnick, Mike - Lucifer Jones 01 - Adventurers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

Resnick - Adventurers

ADVENTURES

CAST OF CHARACTERS

_The Dutchman_, who prefers to think of his slave-trading
operation as an International Employment Placement Service.
_Erich Von Horst_, a con man's con man.
_Herbie Miller_, ivory poacher and part-time vampire.
_Long Schmidt_ and _Short Schmidt_, a pair of brothers from
Pittsburgh who became gods at the lost kingdom of the Malaloki.
_Burley Rourke_, a doctor specializing in diseases of the
gullible.
_Rosepetal Schultz_, who differs from most ancient Egyptian
queens in that she was born twenty-three years ago in Brooklyn.
_The Rodent_, undersized killer of either sixteen or thirty-
five men, who changed his name from the Weasel for professional
reasons.
_Mr. Christian_, officer aboard the good ship Dying Quail.
_Bloomstoke_, a tall, bronzed British nobleman who is living
with a tribe of apes while hiding from his creditors.
_Neeyora_, just your typical naked blonde white goddess, who
tips the scales at four hundred pounds, give or take an ounce.
_Capturing Clyde Calhoun_, who brings 'em back alive. Not
intact, but alive.
_Amen-hetep III_, whose mummy carries a half-clad girl
through the streets of Cairo before checking in at Shepheard's
Hotel.
_Major Theodore Dobbins_, a man with a taste for rich widows,
who is also a speculator in certain perishable commodities
imported from far exotic China and points east.
And our narrator, The _Right Reverend Honorable Doctor
Lucifer Jones_: his religion is a little something he and the Lord
worked out between themselves one afternoon, his tabernacle is the
most prosperous brothel in British East Africa, and he has serious
disagreements with the authorities of fourteen different African
nations over the finer points of the law. On the other hand, he
means well.

Chapter 1

THE WHITE GODDESS

I knew a real live vampire. It was in Africa about seventy
years ago, and his name was Herbie Miller. He didn't look much
like a vampire, I suppose -- walked around in khaki pants that he
cut off above the knees, and his hair wasn't slicked down or
nothing. I can't say he was real fond of crosses, but daylight
didn't bother him none, and he had no problems walking over