"Walter Jon Williams - City on Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)

no one is there: perhaps they haven't shown up for work. Outside Aiah finds
herself on a promenade overlooking a canal. A pair of ascetics, bearded and
grimy, sit on beds of nails before their begging bowls. One of them
brandishes a handmade poster about the "Uniting of the Altogether." The canal
water is bright green with algae. There is salt in the air and bobbing
rubbish in the water. Caraqui, except for a strip of mainland here and there
and some islands, is built across its sea on huge, ancient concrete pontoons,
all linked together by bridges, cables, and anchors.
From atop the worn promenade rail allegorical bronze statues, weathered,
pitted, and green, gaze down at Aiah from ruined, pop-eyed faces. She is
uncomfortable under their gaze, but isn't certain where to go from here.
She looks up as shining silver-blue letters track across the gray sky: There
is no need for alarm. All fighting is over. The curfew has ended. The
revolutionary government encourages citizens to go about their normal
business.
An elderly female lottery seller, going about her normal business, shuffles
toward Aiah on bare, swollen feet. She was probably selling tickets at the
height of the fighting. Aiah buys one.
For luck, she thinks.
There's a sign pointing down some steps, with the legend Water Taxis. She
follows it.
The taxi is a small outboard with a tattered red plastic awning, driven by a
weathered man of middle years. The hand that reaches for her bag is missing
the first two fingers. A handwritten sign next to the meter says, We take
foreign currency.
Aiah has read a guide to Caraqui on the Wire, and knows the name of a hotel
near the government center. She had tried to call to make reservations but
the lines were down.
"Hotel Ladaq," she says.
He helps her into the boat with his clawed hand. "Can't do that, miss," the
driver says. "Hotel Ladaq's full of soldiers.тАЭ
"Do you know another hotel in the area?тАЭ
"All full of soldiers, miss.тАЭ
"Get me as close to Government Harbor as you can.тАЭ
He starts the meter. "Right away, miss.тАЭ
But it doesn't happen right away. The driver casts off, but then he can't
start the outboard, and as the wind pushes the water taxi broadside down the
canal he has to take the cover off the motor and tinker with it, and then try
to start it again, then tinker some more. Several taxis leave from the
station in the meantime, and Aiah's taxi rocks in their wake.
The meter, Aiah notices, is still running. She points this out to the driver,
but he affects to be too busy with the engine to notice.
He tries to start the engine and fails. Aiah points out the meter is still
running, but the driver starts kicking the motor and screaming.
It's a chonah, Aiah thinks. The driver's a confidence rigger and there
probably isn't anything really wrong with the engine.
If she were home she'd know what to do. But the fact she's a stranger in this
place makes her hesitate.
Finally Aiah steps forward and turns off the cab's meter. The driver is
stern.