"Дон Пендлтон. The Violent Streets ("Палач" #41) " - читать интересную книгу автора

The time is now.
And terrorism, once again, has become very personal.
This one is for Toni, and for Pol. But it is also for myself, and for
the other victims of a silent terrorism, past and present. Their blood cries
out for vengeance, for a justice long denied them. If the war against the
Mafia was unwinnable, quixotic, then this one against the violators can be
little more than a localized delaying action. It may take a generation, and
determined action by the courts and legislatures, to make our cities safe
again for women - or for children, men, you name it. There is nothing that
an Executioner can do to stem that tide of random rape and murder in our
nation. A fighting man needs specific, individual targets, and just this
once I have some.
I suppose it is the nature of the target that disturbs me. From the
beginning of my home-front war against the mob, police have been untouchable
to me. They are soldiers of the same side in a war against the creeping tide
of lawlessness and violence that is terrorism at its most basic. I have met
some cops - and some politicians, some lawyers, some doctors - who disgraced
their oaths of office and their comrades by selling out to the very forces
they are sworn to combat. I've been able to expose a few, and the reaction
of their fellows in the field has been revulsion, the healthy body throwing
off a contaminating parasite. In the end, with an occasional assist from
outside, the lawmen have been both willing and able to police themselves.
And I have never fired on a policeman, or felt the urge to, before now.
There were times, in that other war, when I could have eased my own way, or
made the victory something more than partial, by taking out a cop. I do not
believe you can defeat your enemy by becoming your enemy.
Sometimes, a man who is capable of bearing arms is faced with a
positive duty to use those arms. At times, a man is duty-bound to kill so
that others, the builders and civilizers, may go on about their tasks in
peace. The predators must be held at bay, and there is no peaceful way to
reason with the savages and cannibals among us.
But to kill a cop...
The knowledge of a limited police complicity - however high-placed -
comes as no surprise to me. I've seen too much of the corruption men are
susceptible to. But for the first time, I may find it necessary to bend my
own personal set of rules, to revise the guidelines of my war.
It is a new war, after all, at least in name. And it may require some
new tactics, some new perspectives.
If Benny Copa and Fran Traynor are correct, then certain highly placed
officials in this city have been aiding and abetting an insidious campaign
of terrorism over months and years. It may well be impossible to build a
solid case against them, or to find a prosecutor willing to attempt the job.
In any case, the justice they deserve for wasting lives and violating souls
will not be found in any courtroom. That justice must be swift, sure,
irreversible. For Toni, and the others. For the universe.
And yes, it may be necessary to change some perspectives that I've
carried for a lot of bloody miles. It may be time to face the fact that
beyond a certain point, when he has passed some particular mile marker on
the road of violence and corruption, even a lawman becomes hopeless,
unsalvageable. He becomes a traitor, in the truest, most basic meaning of