"Richard Paul Russo - Watching Lear Dream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russo Richard Paul)

sandy hair that shimmered around her face. Then she brought her hand up and
tugged at her hair in a gesture so painfully familiar it made Samuel's heart
ache.

He knew what he should do. He should dispatch her right now, before this all
went too far. And if he couldn't bring himself to do that, then he should wake
Lear, as dangerous as that could be for both of them, and hope his waking would
destroy her. But he did neither.

He left the room, carefully closing the door. As he came out of the house he
went over to Carpentier and Rashida; Arturo was off a ways, watching them.

"Stay out of the house," Samuel said. "This is going to be a difficult one."

Rashida opened her mouth, but Samuel cut her off before she could say a word.
"Everything will be fine," he said. "I'll be back in a little while, when I'm
prepared. Just stay out of the house."

Then he turned away from them and headed back toward the river.

He sat on the grassy riverbank, gazing into the swirling white and silver-blue
water. The rapids were strong here, but he didn't think they were unnavigable.
He wondered about a boat, a canoe, finding one somewhere nearby, maybe down in
the village. Then he could risk the river, the rocks and the whirlpools, the
heat and the insects and the DivCom people who would come after him once they
realized he had gone, once they realized what he had left behind. He could take
the boat all the way to the inland sea, and from there...

It wasn't Teresa. He knew that. A simulacrum, an imperfect, incomplete
doppelganger. It was only a thing, unliving and in a way unreal, at least for
now.

The last time he had seen Teresa she had been dying...and then dead. He and Lear
had both been with her, waiting for her last breath, the last beat of her heart.
She had died from a vicious bacterial infection, her pain and mind dulled by
analgesics and tropo-opiates. Suffusing her face, though, was an expression that
suggested to Samuel a real sense of peace -- she was already gone from this
world, and was content with that.

But now she was back.

TWO HOURS LATER he returned to the house. The DivCom contingent was still
outside, waiting for him. Carpentier approached, but Samuel glared at the man
until he backed away without a word.


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Just outside Lear's room Samuel stopped and stared at his hands. They were