"Gene Wolfe - Copperhead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

Copperhead
by Gene Wolfe




The telephone in the study rang ten minutes before the news came on. The new President picked it up
and said hello.

"Mister President?"

"Speaking." Only eighteen people were supposed to have the number. For an instant, the new President
wondered how many actually did.

"This is Marsha. Boone's killed himself."

The new President was silent, conscious that there were a thousand things to say and unable to say even
the least of them. In his mind's eye he saw the leaves, a drift of red, yellow, and gold autumn leaves at the
foot of the tree on the hill. Leaves still touched with green here and there, and the stirring under those
leaves.

"He left a note. I haven't been able to find out what was in it."

"Don't."

"Don't?"

"It will be damaging to us in some way. They'll find out, Marsha, and they'll throw it in our faces. We'll
know a lot more about it than we want to then, and you're needed for other things."

"He was my husband, Mr. President. The divorce--"

"I know."

"It wasn't--wasn't final. Not yet. I want to know why he killed himself."

He recalled it exactly. "There was a crash in Idaho in August," the general had said. "We found this in the
wreckage."

"Are you still there, Mr. President?"

The irony almost overcame him, but he managed to say, "Still here."

"He hung himself with--with a telephone cord from the chandelier in the dining room. That's what they
told me. He stood on a chair, a--a chair on top of the table. He p-put the cord around his neck ..."

The new President turned on the TV and pressed the MUTE button. It was easy, he thought. All the
buttons were so easy.

"I need to know, Mr. President. I need to find out."