"Dave Wolverton - Siren Song at Midnight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolverton Dave)

тАЬFather,тАЭ I said, тАЬIтАЩd have come sooner, but no one would tell me where you were.тАЭ

тАЬWhat does it matter?тАЭ he said, and he stood and looked out a small window. He placed his palms on
the stone wall. His hands shook.

тАЬIt matters to me,тАЭ I answered. тАЬIt matters very much. It matters to your friends.тАЭ My father seemed so
despondent, that I wanted to see the hopeful fire that had once burned in his eyes, so I said, тАЬI saw a
Siren three days ago, a child. She washed up near the beach house. I noticed her only because a flock of
gulls had gathered, waiting for her to die. Her skin was purpled, and her gills and fins were chafed. I
pulled her to the shallows and held her underwater to breathe. After a moment, her mother swam up and
took the child out to sea. The mother thanked me. If she were here, perhaps she would thank you, too.тАЭ

I do not know why I told my father this in public. Perhaps I was angry with the Alliance, and wanted the
guards to arrest meтАФhelping the Siren had been an act of treason. I felt that the government was corrupt,
and I wanted the guards to prove to me how evil they had become.

тАЬIt was the pollution,тАЭ my father said, as if he were lecturing one of his classes in paleogenetic
engineering. тАЬThe acidic water makes their gills itch, so the Sirens come to the beach to let the sand wash
through their gills and scratch them. Sometimes their gills fill with silt, and as they strangle they pass out
and wash to shore.тАЭ He fell silent a moment, his voice changed, filling with despair. тАЬYou should have let
the gulls have that child! You should have let her die! She will starve if the pollution doesnтАЩt get her first.
Better to let the child die!тАЭ

тАЬHow can you say that?тАЭ I asked. His dark eyes held no hope or solemnity, only crazed despair. He got
up and paced across his cell, back and forth, full of frantic energy, and I wondered what bad happened
to him during the Alliance interrogations, wondered if he were sane. I wanted to ask if he were guilty of
treason to his species. I wanted to ask if he had really given the Sirens weapons, just as I had wanted to
ask for weeks, but at that moment I was suddenly too afraid to ask.

тАЬFather,тАЭ I said, тАЬI love you.тАЭ

He nodded, bobbing his chin with a lunatic grin. тАЬPor supuesto. Of course, of course,тАЭ he said, as if my
love were a given. He was shaking, and he began to cry, then suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. тАЬHow
is your work? How are theEuparkeria ?тАЭ he asked, not even looking at me, pacing.

тАЬThey are fine,тАЭ I lied. I couldnтАЩt tell him that the government had seized our bank accounts. They
claimed that, like his little private war, my father had funded my research with graft. I did not have enough
money to feed my dinosaurs for another week, so I made arrangements for the zoo to take them.

He continued pacing across the room, licking his lips, caught in the web of his thoughts. I spoke his name
twice, but he did not answer. He swore softly. IтАЩd never seen him like this, never in such despair.

I so wanted him to be happy. I tried to touch him through the repulsion field, and said, тАЬFather, even
now, doesnтАЩt your life taste sweet?тАЭ

My father gazed at me, as if trying to pierce my thoughts, then spat on the floor. I stepped away, and in
that moment I realized that he rejected life. Despite my childish faith, my father was guilty of murder.

Gutierrez came to escort me from the room, back down the corridors of the old prison to a walled court.
In the courtyard stood a dozen dignitaries, as many reporters, and six Alliance Marines with projectile