"Steven Gould - Jumper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gould Stephen Jay)

After a while I fell asleep for real. I came awake with a start, unsure of where I was or even
who. There was a tremor running through my mind, a reaction to a bad dream, barely remembered. I
narrowed my eyes again and my identity and associated memories came back.

Topper was talking on the CB.

"I'll meet you behind Sam's," he was saying. "Fifteen minutes."

"Ten-four, Topper. We're on our way."

Topper signed off.

I yawned and sat up. "Jeeze. Did I sleep long?"

"About an hour, Davy." He smiled like there'd been a joke. He turned off his CB then and
turned the radio to a country and western station.

I hate country and western.

Ten minutes later he took an exit for a farm road far from anywhere.

"You can let me out here, Topper."

"I'm going on kid, just have to meet a guy first. You don't want to hitch in the dark. Nobody'll
stop. Besides, it looks like rain."

He was right. The moon had vanished behind a thick overcast and the wind was whipping the
trees around.

"Okay."

He drove down the rural two-lane for a while, then pulled off the road at a country store with
two gas pumps out front. The store was dark but there was a gravel lot out back where two pickups
were parked. Topper pulled the rig up beside them.

"Come on, kid. Want you to meet some guys."

I didn't move. "That's okay. I'll wait for you here."
 "Sorry," he said. "It's against company policy to pick up riders, but my ass would really be grass
if I left you in here and something happened. Be a sport."

I nodded slowly. "Sure. Don't mean to be any trouble."

He grinned again, big. "No trouble."

I shivered.

To climb down, I had to turn and face the cab, then feel with my feet for the step. A hand guided
my foot to the step and I froze. I looked down. Three men were standing on my side of the truck. I