"Clancy, Tom - Op-Center 06 - State of Siege - with Steve Pieczenik" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clancy Tom)

Iraq co-operate with international arms
inspectors-but threatens no force if Baghdad
fails to comply. Associated Press, November
5, 1998
PROLOGUE Kampong Thorn, Cambodia
1993 She died while he held her under a
brilliant dawn. Her eyelids closed softly,
a faint breath rose from her delicate throat, and
then she was gone. Hang Sary looked down at the
pale face of the young woman. He looked at the
grass and dirt in her wet hair and the cuts in her
forehead and across her nose. He felt revulsion when
he saw the red lipstick on her mouth, the rouge that
had smeared across her cheek, and the charcoal-gray
mascara that had run from her eyes to her ears. This
wasn't how it was supposed to be. Not even
here, in a land where the concept of innocence was as foreign
as the dream of peace. Phum Sary should not have died so
young, and she should not have died like this. No one should die like
this, lying in a windy rice field, the cool water
muddy-red with their blood. But at least Phum had
died knowing who it was that held her in his arms. At
least she didn't die as she'd probably lived
most of her life, alone and uncherished. And though the
search that Hang had never quite abandoned was over, he
knew that another was about to begin. Hang's knees were
raised and his sister's head was in
2 OP-CENTER
his lap. He lightly touched the cold tip of her
nose, the fine line of her jaw, her round mouth. A
mouth that always used to smile, regardless of what she was
doing. The girl felt so small and fragile. He
pulled her arms from the water and laid them on the
waist of her tight blue lame dress. He
cuddled her closer. He wondered if anyone had
held her like this in ten years. Had she lived this
horrible life the entire time? Had she finally had enough
and decided that death was preferable? Hang's long
face tightened as he thought about her life. Then it
exploded in tears. How could he have been so near and
not have known it? He and Ty had been in the
village, undercover, for nearly a week. Could he
ever forgive himself for not having seen her in time to save
her? Poor Ty would be inconsolable when she learned
who this was. Ty had been in the camp
reconnoitering, trying to find out who was behind this. She
had radioed Hang to let him know that one of the women
had apparently tried to escape shortly before
sunrise, when the watch changed. She'd been chased
and shot. Phum had taken the bullet in the side.