"Christopher Rowe - The Voluntary State" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowe Christopher)

"Welder!" said another man.
"Union-certified," said Japheth. "That's my day job,
working at the border."
More lies, knew Soma. "I suppose Kentuckians built the
Girding Wall, then?"
Everything he said amused these people greatly. "Not just
Kentuckians, vol, the whole rest of the world. Only we call it
the containment field."
"Agitator, singer, welder," said the painter, the numbness
spreading deeper than it had before, affecting the way he said
words and the way he chose them.
"Assassin," rumbled the Owl, the first thing Soma had
heard the burly man say.
Japheth was scrambling up a bank before Soma. He
stopped and twisted. His foot corkscrewed through the leaf
mat and released a humid smell. He looked at the Owl, then
hard at Soma, reading him.
"You're doped up good now, Soma Painter. No way to open
that head until we open it for you. So, sure, here's some truth
for you. We're not just here to steal her things. We're here to
break into her mansion. We're here to kill Athena Parthenus,
Queen of Logic and Governor of the Voluntary State of
Tennessee."
****


Jenny-With-Grease-Beneath-Her-Fingernails spread fronds
across the parking lot, letting the high green fern leaves dry
out before she used the mass to make her bed. Her horse


13
 The Voluntary State
by Christopher Rowe


watched from above the half-door of its stall. Inside the main
body of the garage, Soma's car slept, lightly anesthetized.
"Just enough for a soft cot, horse," said Jenny. "All of us
we'll sleep well after this hard day."
Then she saw that little flutter. One of the fronds had a bit
of feather caught between some leaves, and yes, it was coal
black, midnight blue, reeking of the north. Jenny sighed,
because her citizenship was less faultless than Soma's, and
policemen disturbed her. But she opened her head and stared
at the feather.
A telephone leapt off a tulip poplar a little ways down the
road to Nashville. It squawked through its brief flight and
landed with inelegant weight in front of Jenny. It turned its
beady eyes on her.