"Michael Swanwick - Radiant Doors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swanwick Michael)

Give him credit, the sergeant-major was a game little fellow. I can't imagine what
we looked like to him, one harridan chasing the other down the streets of Hell.
But he took the situation in at a glance, unholstered his sidearm and stepped
forward. "Please," he said. "You will both stand where you are. You will place
your hands upon the top of your head. You willтАУ"

Gevorkian flicked her fingers at the young soldier. He screamed, and clutched his
freshly crushed shoulder. She turned away from him, dismissively. The other
soldiers had fled at the first sign of trouble. All her attention was on me,
trembling in her sight like a winded doe. "Sweet little vic," she purred. "If you
won't play the part we had planned for you, you'll simply have to be silenced."

"No," I whispered.


file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Michael%20Swanwick%20-%20Radiant%20Doors.htm (17 of 21) [12/30/2004 8:07:58 PM]
 Radiant Doors by Michael Swanwick This story first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, September 1998


She touched my wrist. I was helpless to stop her. "You and I are going to go to
my office now. We'll have fun there. Hours and hours of fun."

"Leave her be."

As sudden and inexplicable as an apparition of the Virgin, Shriver stepped out of
the darkness. He looked small and grim.

Gevorkian laughed, and gestured.

But Shriver's hand reached up to intercept hers, and where they met, there was an
electric blue flash. Gevorkian stared down, stunned, at her hand. Bits of tangled
metal fell away from it. She looked up at Shriver.

He struck her down.

She fell with a brief harsh cry, like that of a sea gull. Shriver kicked her, three
times, hard: In the ribs. In the stomach. In the head. Then, when she looked like
she might yet regain her feet, "It's one of them! " he shouted. "Look at her! She's
a spy for the Owners! She's from the future! Owner! Look! Owner!"

The refugees came tumbling out of the tents and climbing down out of their
cages. They looked more alive than I'd ever seen them before. They were red-
faced and screaming. Their eyes were wide with hysteria. For the first time in my
life, I was genuinely afraid of them. They came running. They swarmed like
insects.

They seized Gevorkian and began tearing her apart.

I saw her struggle up and halfway out of their grips, saw one arm rise up above