"Simon R. Green - Drinking Midnight Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

up onto the waiting-room roof in one impossible bound, as though borne aloft on invisible
wings. Roof slates cracked and exploded under her bare feet as she landed, her long legs
barely flexing as they absorbed the impact. She held her hands like claws, and her wide smile
could just as easily have been a snarl. Jimmy Thunder drew his hammer from its holster and
moved reluctantly forward to face her.
Down below, on the far platform, the newly arrived refugees were panicking. Everyone
was shouting and milling about, and trying to get back into the carriages, but the doors
wouldn't open for them. There was pushing and shoving, and some fell to the ground and
were trampled underfoot. Hob moved quickly among them, trying to calm them with his
voice and his presence, but no one was listening. Newly human, no longer protected by their
old natures or powers, the refugees were naked and vulnerable and they knew it. This was a
perfect time for old enemies to strike, and pay off old scores and blood feuds. The crowd
suddenly seized on the notion of escape, and headed en masse for the only exit, the black iron
gate beside the station house. Hob was yelling now at the top of his voice, but no one gave a
damn.
Up on the waiting-room roof there was neither time nor space for subtlety. Jimmy and
Angel slammed together head-on, like two crashing trains. They exchanged blows that would
have killed ordinary mortals, and took no hurt at all. Jimmy ducked one punch, and Angel's
fist went on to shatter the chimney stack behind him. It all but exploded, showering bricks
and rubble down the sloping roof and onto the platform below. The two fighters circled each
other silently. They had nothing to say. More slates cracked and shattered under their feet as
they threw themselves forward again. Jimmy made no attempt to block Angel's blow, taking
it unflinchingly as he raised Mjolnir above his head and brought it down with all his strength.
But Angel was still too fast for him. She leaped aside and the hammer came rushing down to
strike the sloping roof, which broke open under the impact. The entire roof collapsed,
plunging down into the waiting room below, and Jimmy and Angel went down with it, in a
roar of disintegrating masonry.
Smoke and debris blew out the waiting room's windows, while the large oblong room filled
with rubble and dust. Jimmy and Angel hit the floor hard, but were immediately back on their
feet again, not even out of breath from their fall. They saw each other through the dust-
choked air, and surged forward once again. Angel caught Jimmy in the chest with a powerful
blow, and he was thrown backwards, knocking a hole through the wall behind him with his
semi-divine body. It wasn't enough to damage him, but it still hurt like hell. And in the
moment it took him to shrug off the hurt and rise out of the collapsed wall, Angel seized the
advantage and went for his throat. Mjolnir leaped to Jimmy's defence, and lashed out to strike
Angel a vicious blow on the right temple. Her head snapped right round under the impact, her
neck bones squealing, but her neck held and her skull didn't break. Jimmy was frankly
astonished, but that didn't stop him lashing out with his other hand, driving her back while she
was still off balance. He charged forward, broken masonry falling off him like raindrops,
wound up and threw Mjolnir at Angel with all his strength, sure that even a descended angel
couldn't stand against the power and momentum of the legendary hammer that had split
mountains in its time. Perhaps Angel wasn't sure either, and at the very last moment she
ducked, and the hammer sailed harmlessly over her head to punch a hole through the wall
behind her. Jimmy yelled for the hammer to return to him, but nothing happened. Bloody
thing was getting senile. He lurched forward and Angel came to meet him, and for a long time
they stood toe to toe, giving and receiving blows of terrible force that could normally shatter
anything the mortal world had to offer. Neither of them would give an inch, and they fought
on remorselessly as the last of the waiting room collapsed around them.
Hob was still trying to keep his panicking refugees under control, barking orders now in a
cold, authoritative voice that as a rule would never be ignored, but no one was listening to