"David L. Robbins - Endworld 04 - The Kalispell Run" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robbins David L)

followers. The thirty-acre plot became known as the Home, and
Carpenter's followers adopted the title of the Family. Carpenter spent
millions building the walled, fortified Home, and providing the provisions
and supplies the Family would require after World War III. He wanted to
ensure the Family would persist in a world run amok. The SEAL was built
according to his precise specifications by automakers eager to take his
money. They viewed him as another harmless, but immensely wealthy,
eccentric. Carpenter wanted the engineers and scientists to fabricate a
vehicle capable of enduring a century if necessary. He had the transport
hidden in an underground chamber, leaving instructions that it was to be
left alone until needed. Ironically enough, one hundred years after The Big
Blast, as the Family referred to the nuclear conflict, the current Leader of
the Home, Plato, had the SEAL uncovered and put to use.

Plato wanted to send three of the Family's Warriors, the trio known as
Alpha Triad, to the Twin Cities in the hope of locating certain medical and
scientific equipment he required. The Family was suffering from a form of
premature senility, and Plato was optimistic he could discover the cause
and develop a cure if he only had the right implements and resources.
Alpha Triad successfully reached the Twin Cities, but it returned to the
Home without the items Plato requested. To compound the matter, the
Warriors hadn't really looked. For one thing, they had been too busy
staying alive.
 The muscular giant frowned at the memory of Plato's scathing rebuke
after they came back. True, he was badly beaten and not in any condition
to go traipsing all over Minneapolis and St. Paul, scouring the dilapidated
structures for the articles on Plato's list. But, as his kindly mentor loudly
noted, in a rare display of anger, the others weren't seriously hurt and they
could have searched if they had really wanted to do so.

That was the crux of the issue.

"If you had sincerely desired to do as instructed, Blade," Plato had
emphasized.

Blade sighed, knowing Plato had correctly assessed the real reason for
their failure. Unknown to anyone else, Hickok had wanted to return so he
could go after the remaining Trolls, the ones responsible for his darling
Joan's death. Blade couldn't tolerate being separated from his fiancee
Jenny. And even the normally dependable Geronimo, it turned out, had
entertained an ulterior motive for wanting to head back to the Home; he
intended to assist a woman and her daughter named Rainbow and Star.

Geronimo. Hickok. Himself. Alpha Triad. They had all changed in
recent months, Blade reflected. Hickok was off somewhere, filled with a
burning need for revenge, searching for the barbaric Trolls. Geronimo was
quieter than usual on this run to Kalispell, and Blade wondered why. He
knew Geronimo was the only remaining Family member with any vestige
of Indian blood, and he also knew Geronimo had speculated on whether he
was the last Indian left alive after the Big Blast. It must have come as