"Howard Waldrop - The Wolf-man of Alcatraz" - читать интересную книгу автора (Waldrop Howard)

"You ain't telling me nothing I don't know. I ain't afraid of marines."

"I know you're not," said Howlin. "That's your choice. And I don't like being in here any more than you
do. But it's not the marines I'm worried about, either."

Hubbard and Kretzer joined them. "It's quiet," said Kretzer. "They'll yell if the soldiers try anything.
What's up?"

"I don't know yet," said Coy. "Get to the point, Howlin."

"You don't have the keys to get out of the cell-block building. There's no other way out of here. They'll
jackhammer their way in through the roof soon. There's three, maybe five of you with guns. There's
hundreds of them. It's pretty much over."

"You scared?" asked Hubbard.

"Yes. But notтАФ"

The sound of two prisoners having sex in a cell down the way came to them.

Coy jumped up and fired down Broadway. "You animals disgust me!" he yelled. He wiped his eyes and
nose, coughed hard and couldn't stop.

"Coy," said Howlin. "Tonight is the full moon. If this isn't over before it comes up, and they haven't got
me down to the isolation vault, you, and every prisoner here, will be locked in with me."

Hubbard and Kretzer looked at Coy, then back at Howlin, sitting among his books.

"He's crazy!" said Hubbard.

"Maybe. Probably," said Howlin.

"Why don't we kill him now?" asked Kretzer.

"What's he done to us?" asked Hubbard. "He's stuck in here like us, crazy or not. He didn't break out."

Coy rubbed his eyes.

Howlin lifted his leg off the floor, cupped both hands around his knee. "I thought I would tell you what's
going to happen tonight, since in your excitement you might have forgotten me. You can listen to me, or
you can listen to the warden: I don't care. They've got their timetable for dealing with youтАФI have no
idea what that is. I only know mine, and that I can't help myself, once it starts.

"If that happens, you might as well eat those guns now. They won't do you any good. The only ones
that'll work on me are down there in the vault level, and you can't get there, either. Bars won't help; I'll
come through them like they were butter. Not only that, I'll get everyone in the cell-block building, one at
a time. Then I'll start in on the marines when they get in, and the rest of the Island. Then I'll take the boat
and do in San Francisco.

"You've got eleven hours and fourteen minutes. That's all I wanted to say."