"Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Dean Wesley Smith - Xmen and Xmen 2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, for coming up with the concept in the first place; to Len Wein &
Dave Cockrum, for revamping it and then handing over the writing reins to a young punk who probably
didnтАЩt know any better; to Louise Simonson & Brent Eric Anderson, for тАЬGod Loves, Man KillsтАЭ; to
Eleanor Wood, for reasons that need no explanation; to Betsy Mitchell, for having faith; and Steve Saffel,
for keeping both book and writer superbly on-track. Sometimes, it takes a тАЬvillageтАЭ to write a book, and
for that I am extremely grateful.




Also available from Del Rey Books:

X-MEN by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

SPIDER-MAN by Peter David

HULK by Peter David




Chapter
One

Mutants. Since the discovery of their existence, they have been regarded with fear, suspicion, and
often hatred. Across the planet, debate rages: Are mutants the next link in the evolutionary chain
...

. . . or simply a new species of humanity fighting for their share of the world? Either way, one
fact has been historically proven: Sharing the world has never been humanityтАЩs defining attribute
...

тАФCharles Xavier

тАЬ тАШWe are not enemies, but friends,тАЩ тАЭthe tour guide said as she led the group through the East Wing
entrance of the White House.тАЬ тАШWe must not be enemies,тАЩ тАЭ she continued, pausing to let them gather
inside the foyer beneath one of the presidential portraits that lined the wall.тАЬ тАШThough passion may have
strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection.тАЩ Abraham Lincoln.тАЭ

Alicia Vargas had made this speech hundreds of times, yet she had a knack of making it sound as though
sheтАЩd just thought it up. She was a short young woman who looked barely out of college, with big,
wide-spaced eyes, an open face, a ready smile. That way, youтАЩd miss the fact that those lustrous eyes
never stopped moving from person to person among the group she was shepherding along, or that the
drape of her blazer masked the Sig-Sauer pistol resting in its snap-draw holster at the small of her back.

Alicia Vargas was Secret Service, just like the tall, broad-shouldered, stone-faced men in business suits
who stood at intervals along the walls. At the reception desk and at the doorways leading to the interior
of the White House were their equally imposing uniformed counterparts in the Executive Protection