"Robert Charles Wilson - Julian- A Christmas Story" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Robert Charles)

"Tom Shearney, the barber with a bladder complaint, just tried to leave to use the jakes. He was
turned back."

Indeed, Tom Shearney was seated less than a yard away from us, squirming unhappily and casting
resentful glances at the Reserve men.

"But after the ballotingтАФ"

"This isn't about balloting. This is about conscription."

"Conscription!"

"Hush!" Julian said hastily, shaking his hair out of his pale face. "You'll start a stampede. I didn't think
it would begin so soon . . . but we've had certain telegrams from New York about setbacks in Labrador,
and the call-up of new divisions. Once the balloting is finished the Campaigners will probably announce a
recruitment drive, and take the names of everyone present and survey them for the names and ages of
their children."

"We're too young to be drafted," I said, for we were both just seventeen.

"Not according to what I've heard. The rules have been changed. Oh, you can probably find a way to
hide out when the culling beginsтАФand get away with it, considering how far we are from anywhere else.
But my presence here is well-known. I don't have a mob or family to melt away into. In fact it's probably
not a coincidence that so many Reserves have been sent to such a little village as Williams Ford."

"What do you mean, not a coincidence?"

"My uncle has never been happy about my existence. He has no children of his own. No heirs. He
sees me as a possible competitor for the Executive."

"But that's absurd. You don't want to be PresidentтАФdo you?"
"I would sooner shoot myself. But Uncle Deklan has a jealous bent, and he distrusts the motives of
my mother in protecting me."

"How does a draft help him?"

"The entire draft is not aimed at me, but I'm sure he finds it a useful tool. If I'm drafted, no one can
complain that he's excepting his own family from the general conscription. And when he has me in the
infantry he can be sure I find myself on the front lines in LabradorтАФperforming some noble but suicidal
trench attack."

"ButтАФJulian! Can't Sam protect you?"

"Sam is a retired soldier; he has no power except what arises from the patronage of my mother.
Which isn't worth much in the coin of the present realm. Adam, is there another way out of this building?"

"Only the door, unless you mean to break a pane of that colored glass that fills the windows."

"Somewhere to hide, then?"