"Kim Stanley Robinson - Sixty Days and Counting" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

to a promotion, or what had seemed like a promotion, over to Homeland Security.
That was where she had met Ed. The way at first he had seemed so calm, so
capable, and in just the areas she was then getting interested in. The intriguing parts
of spook work. The way it had let her be outdoors, or at least out and aboutтАФat
first. Like a kind of sport. тАЬAh yeah,тАЭ Frank put in, thinking of the fun of tracking
animals. тАЬI did jobs like that too, sometimes. I wanted that too.тАЭ
Then the ways things had changed, and gone wrong, in both work and marriage.
How bad it had gotten. Here she grew vague and seemed to suppress some agitation
or grimness. She kept looking out the window, as did Frank. A car passed and they
both were too distracted by it to go on.
тАЬAnyway, then you and I got stuck in the elevator,тАЭ she resumed. She stopped,
thinking about that perhaps; shook her head, looked out the kitchen window at the
driveway again. тАЬLetтАЩs get out of here,тАЭ she said abruptly. тАЬI donтАЩt likeтАжWhy donтАЩt
we go for a drive in your van? I can show you some of the island, and I can get
some time to think things through. I canтАЩt think here right now. ItтАЩs giving me the
creeps that youтАЩre here, I mean in the sense ofтАжAnd we can put your van
someplace else, if I decide to come back here. You know. Just in case. I actually
have my car parked down at the other end of the lake. IтАЩve been sailing down to it
when I want to drive somewhere.тАЭ
тАЬSailing?тАЭ
тАЬIceboating.тАЭ
тАЬAh. Okay,тАЭ Frank said. They got up. тАЬButтАФdo you think we even ought to come
back here?тАЭ
She frowned. He could see she was getting irritated or upset. His arrival had messed
up what she had thought was a good thing. Her refuge. тАЬIтАЩm not sure,тАЭ she said
uneasily. тАЬI donтАЩt think Ed will ever be able to find that one call I made to Mary. I
made it from a pay phone IтАЩve never used before or since.тАЭ
тАЬButтАФif heтАЩs searching for something? For an old connection?тАЭ
тАЬYes, I know.тАЭ She gave him an odd look. тАЬI donтАЩt know. LetтАЩs get going. I can
think about it better when I get away from here.тАЭ
He saw that it was as he had feared; to her, his arrival was simply bad news. He
wondered for a second if she had planned ever to contact him again.
They walked up the driveway to FrankтАЩs van, and he drove them back toward
Somesville, following her instructions. She looked into all the cars going past them
the other way. They drove around the head of the sound, then east through more
forests, past more lakes.
Eventually she had him park at a feature called Bubble Rock, which turned out to be
a big glacial erratic, perched improbably on the side of a polished granite dome.
Frank looked at the rocky slopes rising to both sides of the road, amazed; he had
never seen granite on the East Coast before. It was as if a little patch of the Sierra
Nevada had been detached by a god and cast over to the Atlantic. The granite was
slightly pinker than in the Sierra, but otherwise much the same.
тАЬLetтАЩs go up the Goat Trail,тАЭ she said. тАЬYouтАЩll like it, and I need to do something.тАЭ
She led him along the road until it reached a frozen lake just under the South Bubble,
then crossed the road and stood facing the steep granite slope flanking this long lake.
тАЬThatтАЩs Jordan Pond, and this is Pemetic Mountain,тАЭ gesturing at the slope above
them. тАЬAnd somewhere here is the start of the Goat Trail.тАЭ She walked back and
forth, scanning the broken jumble of steep rock looming over them. A very unlikely
spot to begin a trail. The pink-gray granite was blackened with lichen, had the same
faulted structure as any granite wall shaved by a glacier. In this case the ice resting