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.His father was growing angrier andangrier over Maurice s insistence that he was dead; Logrissenhad ceased walking and now simply stood motionless at the en-trance to the hotel, staring in at Maurice.Charbonneau couldsee Logrissen s lower intestines, hanging out of the hole Char-Moran 225bonneau s autoshot had made in him back in the summer of  59.Finally Maurice said, Sergeant? Did you say something?Yes.I ve lost touch with Conseiller Carson.Want me to go up and see what s happened?Sergeant D Argentan hesitated, then said reluctantly, No.No,don t do that.I ll go.Watch the door, make sure nobody enters the hotel.Mau-rice nodded, and D Argentan turned to the maglevs.The door to the center maglev flexed slightly beforeD Argentan had even touched the pressure point that controlledit.The door curled open.Maurice watched D Argentan jerk as though he had toucheda live wire, one hand still reaching for the pressure point, as theconverging beams reached him and his uniform burst intoflames.They came out into the lobby slowly, cautiously, steppingacross Sergeant D Argentan s burning body.As Maurice hadheard, they were mere children; it was the first time Mauricehad seen them since their kidnaping.Maurice sat with his auto-shot, watching the genegineered telepath children move acrossthe lobby, toward the entrance.The boy had his laser trained onMaurice, and Maurice smiled at him.The girl was very pretty,but she did not look at Maurice after the first quick glance tomake sure her brother had him covered.Maurice said politely,in heavily accented English,  Hello.The boy hesitated at the door after the girl had ventured out-ward, onto the slidewalk in front of the hotel.For the first timeMaurice seriously considered the possibility that SergeantD Argentan had told him the truth; neither of the childrenseemed to notice Nils Logrissen s grinning corpse standing justoutside the hotel s entrance.The girl turned back. David, come on!David Castanaveras took one slow, halting step toward Mau-rice Charbonneau.Maurice smiled at the boy one more time asDavid brought the maser down to focus on the center of Mau-rice s chest. Hello, Maurice said again. I am Maurice Charbonneau.226 TalesDavid Castanaveras whispered; Maurice had to strain tohear him. Hello.My name is David Castanaveras, and this isfor my father.Then for the barest instant Maurice felt a pain so great thathe thought for a moment it was something else entirely thetouch of God, perhaps, calling him home.And perhaps it was.The maser beam swept across him and then there was no pain,nor anything else, for ever and ever again, amen.The twins ran out into the night, into the riots.Into the first hour of the Troubles.TRENT WAS NOT certain what caused him to look back.He wasout of sight of the Peaceforcer station, running through the rainas fast as he was able.Behind him something moved too fast forhis eyes to track.Brass balls.He ducked into an alleyway, ran to its far end and turned outonto another street.He found himself on Westway Street, acrossthe street from the Hudson River.The wind whipped the riverstrongly, and its waves splashed up and onto Westway Street.He was the only person on the slidewalks for three blocks in anydirection.If the Peaceforcers came this farHe ran straight across the street, down to the water.On the other side of the street, the Peaceforcer Elite seemedto appear out of nowhere.A single pier stretched out into the water of the HudsonRiver; Trent could not see a boat on the side facing him, butthere had to be one on the other side.The logic did not strikehim as even slightly strange; if there was no boat the cyborgwould catch him.He ran the thirty meters to the pier s entranceand reached the boardwalk only seconds ahead of the Elite andran down its empty length without looking back.His gaze sweptleft and right, left and right.There were no boats moored anywhere on the pier.The Peaceforcer made a long arm and snagged Trent s shirt.In a single instant of movement too fast for Trent to compre-Moran 227hend, much less resist, the Peaceforcer gathered Trent in andpicked him up from the boardwalk.Trent did the only thing he could think of; from a lifetime ofmartial arts instruction, he grasped the Peaceforcer, hugginghim for traction, and kicked down at the invisible blur of theElite s legs.It was like thrusting his hand into a rotor.He felthis right leg snap like a stick and then the Peaceforcer wentdown, and together they skidded across the slick boardwalk.They did not even slow before they went over the edge into thechoppy water.There was no air in his lungs; he had not had time to draw abreath.The Peaceforcer was still holding him, and the cyborg sgreat weight drew them both down into the warm summer wa-ters.The iron grip of the Elite s hand on his shoulder eased asthough the Peaceforcer were considering the situation, and thenthe grip loosened further and let Trent go.With the last energyin him, Trent kicked up, to the surface of the water, and drew ina great gasping breath when he broke through to the air.A hugeroaring filled his ears, and he swallowed water several times.Bright red dots hung before his eyes, and he considered, asthough it were a problem that did not concern him, how to getback to land when he did not have the strength to swim.The waves brought him smashing up against one of the col-umns that bore the pier s weight, and then again [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]