"Mack Reynolds - Deathwish World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

his side pocket, and brought forth a pair of thin black gloves. His right hand went back into
pocket of his shorts and came forth with a key. He unlocked the door and all three filed thr
quickly. He locked the door behind him.
The other two put their attach├й cases and the cane on the room's center table and also do
gloves. They seemed in no hurry. They took out handkerchiefs and carefully wiped the cane
case with professional care.
Their leader, a black, went through the small apartment, which consisted of bedroom, bath,
kitchen, besides the living room into which they had entered, and checked it out carefully. He,
had left his attach├й case on the table after wiping it clean.
His companions looked about at the nondescript furniture, which included a broken couch an
old-fashioned rocking chair.
The two were of dark complexion, but there the resemblance ended. One was tall, wiry,
cougarlike of movement, black of hair and eye. The other was below average height, sto
muscular. He tended to smile, while his companion was stoic of expression in keeping with
Amerind tradition. The smaller man was Latino.
The stocky one said, "Look, civilization." He pointed at the sole representative of mo
furnishing, a small Tri-Di set.
The black, who had checked out the other rooms, returned and said, "Wizard, let's get the s
roadbound."
Jose Zavalla took up the walking stick and began to unscrew the handle. His limp was gone.
handle came away and he upended the cane to let its contents slide gently into his right hand. It w
metallic tube about three feet long, threaded on one end externally, internally on the other. He l
back on the table.
"Jesus, it's light," he said.
Tom Horse, the Indian, who was opening the two attach├й cases, said, "Titanium alloy."
The sole contents of the hand luggage consisted of seven items, all carefully wrapped in
rubber. Tom took them out gingerly, one by one, and laid them in a row on the table.
He said, "How's it look up the road, Hamp?"
Hamp was the black, a well-built, dark-chocolate man with features more Caucasian than Bantu
went over to the middle of the three curtained windows that lined the street side of the room
pulled one curtain aside a bit and peered out, looking toward the north. From a jacket pocke
brought forth a small monoscope, twisted it open, and took off both lens shields. He pu
eyepiece to his right eye, adjusted the focus.
He said, "Quite a turnout. Must be triple the population of the town."
"You don't hear the governor sound off every day in New Salem and environs," Tom told
unwrapping his packages with love care.
"Nice big banner above the speaker's stand," Hamp said. "Says, America for the Americans.
sentimental. American flags at both ends. They look a little out of date. How many stars in the
these days?"
"Who keeps track? About a hundred," Tom said. He had taken up the tube Joe had extracted
the hollow cane and was carefully screwing one of the other objectsтАФa stubby rectan
affairтАФinto the threads of its interior.
 He said bitterly, "America for the Americans. You can be an Englishman or German whose pa
came over twenty years ago and took out citizenship papers and you're an American. But you
have ancestors going back twenty thousand years on this continent and you're on the shit list."
Hamp said, still surveying with his monoscope, "You damn redskins are always complaining.
a minute, I think they've erected that speaker's stand thirty meters farther up than we figured on."
"Hell," the Indian said, taking up an aluminum rod from the table. One end of it was threade
had it all zeroed, sighted-in, calibrated."
Joe, watching the assembly job, said, "That's the smallest breech I've ever seen."