"Mary Rosenblum - Jumpers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenblum Mary)

A streak of movement shattered the barrier of shadow and light. Zlia burst from the forest, running.

"No!" Joaquin yelled, but it was too late. The guards swiveled to face her, weapons coming up.

Zlia didn't belong on their ground. She moved awkwardly on her long-toed feet, clumsy, a crippled
mistake where she had been grace itself. Light glinted on a blade in her hand as she launched herself at
the guard who stood over Silvano. Without hurry, almost lazily, the other guard took aim.

"No! Don't!" Joaquin dashed through the invisible barrier of light, dazzled by the sun, stumbling over the
rough ground, too slow, too late. For an instant they all seemed suspendedтАФZlia, the guard, and
JoaquinтАФin the same perfect balance that he had experienced as they shared her frog. Then the weapon
made a tiny spitting noise and Zlia's limbs went slack in the middle of her leap.

"No!" Joaquin screamed, but she was already tumbling, her sprawling limbs slack and ugly, too long and
too thin.

Silvano gave a cry like a wounded animal, scrambling on his knees to her through the dust. Joaquin
reached them, not caring if the guards fired or not, falling to the ground beside Silvano, skin shredding
from his knees as he scooped her into his lap. She was so light. Like a child. And her bones felt fragile as
a bird's.

One hand lifted, fluttering at the tangle of hair about her face. Her eyes were open, and she smiled gently
at something in the air beyond Joaquin. "Look," she whispered, and her hand closed on his, the sky blue
and scarlet frog squirming between them.

Her stare compelled him, and he looked out at the empty, baking ground. And saw тАж a shadow, a
figure that might be human, twisting slowly as it slid through the hot, thick air on a diagonal down and
through the sun-baked clay. Transparent, ethereal, it vanished slowly into the earth.

A jumper.

Her hand went slack, and Joaquin became aware of Silvano weeping softly. He touched her throat,
feeling for a pulse, then laid her gently on the ground. And from the corner his eye, he thought he saw
another shape drifting, falling slowly through the heat and light and earth.

Maybe they were ghosts after all.

A car pulled up beside him, and its shadow fell over Joaquin as he pulled off his tunic and covered her
from the alien face of the sun. A door opened. Closed. "My, this is a dramatic scene." The tone was
male, controlled, mildly amused. "My timing was perfect, it seems. I brought your illegal ova, Silvano."

Joaquin got slowly to his feet. "Father." He raised his head, found himself eye to eye with his father's
expensive youth. "I am surprised. You have never come after me in person before."

"You were never really lost before." His father's tone was still amused, but a brief darkness glimmered in
his eyes. "I'm pleased that you chose to deliver my son now instead of sticking to your ridiculous demand
for time. Here." He stepped across the sterile dust in his handmade real-leather shoes, laid a small
enviro-container on the ground beside Zlia's body. "There are four here. Two male, two female, as I
promised. I am relieved that you have been found intact." He was speaking to Joaquin, never looked at
Silvano. "Shall we go?"