"Stephen Goldin - Herds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

"Sure. The Great Compromiser. Make any deal, as long as it
gets you what you want. Well, I've got a little surprise for you,
Mister Supervisor. I do not make deals. I don't give a God damn
whether you make it in politics or not. I intend to walk into our
lawyer's office tomorrow and start the papers fluttering."

"Stella..."

"Maybe I'll even have a little talk with the press about all the
milk of human kindness that flows in your veins, husband dear."

"I'm warning you, Stella…"

"That would be a big tragedy, wouldn't it, Wes, if you had to
actually get elected…"

"STOP IT, STELLA!"

"… by the voters to get into office instead of being appointed
all nice and neat by your buddies…"

"STELLA!"

His hands were up to her throat as he screamed her name. He
wanted her to stop, but she wouldn't. Her lips kept moving and
moving, and the words were lost in a silencing mist that
enveloped the cabin. Normal colorations vanished as the room
took on a blood-red hue. He shook her and closed his huge hands
tightly around her neck.

The cigarette dropped from her surprised fingers at the
unexpected attack, spilling some of its ashes on the floor. Stella
raised her hands against her husband's chest and tried to push
him away. For a moment she succeeded, but he kept coming,
fighting off her flailing arms to grip her with all the strength at
his disposal.

There was a numbness in his fingers as they closed around her
throat. He did not feel the soft warmth of her skin yielding under
his pressure, the pulsing of the arteries in her neck or the
instinctive tightening of her tendons. All he felt was his own
muscles, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing.

Gradually, her struggling subsided. Her facial coloring seemed
funny, even through the red haze that clouded his vision. Her
bulging eyes looked ready to leap from their sockets, opened
wide and staring at him, staring, staring…

He let go. She fell to the ground, but slowly. Slow-motion slow,
dream slow. Still there was no sound as she hit the floor. She