"Jacquelyn Hooper - Home On The Range" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hooper Jacquelyn)

sound of birds, cats, and shrieking metal singing together.

Never soft toned American. Never names.

She closed her eyes. "Please."

Paladin brought down the mallet on the final stake, over her heart. Her body
twitched, then stilled.

"Call it in." He tossed the mallet in the grass in front of Chris. "Tell Rae
it's red light."

"She--"

"It's dead." He wiped his hands on his jacket, turning the wet leather a richer
brown.

Chris stood up, and walked toward the equipment. He hated this. He always had,
always would.

As he called Rae, the sky darkened, and the rain turned to hail.

"Put it away careful," Paladin said, a half hour later. "It's mine, not New
river's."

Chris rolled the net and slipped it into the mouth of the launcher. "Sorry."

Paladin removed his hat, shook water from the brim, and put it back on. "What's
passin' your back?"

"She said my name." He removed the legs from the launcher.

"So what? You know how many people on this planet named Chris? Light a rocket
and everyone's looking for the Second Coming." He approached Chris, and took the
launcher legs from his hands. "I gave you rules. follow 'em before I put you
with them other idiots in Exterminator's Row."

He glared at Paladin's back. Exterminator's row was a monument created by the
New river Expedition Company dedicated to the exterminators who died on Cynataka
since its colonization. Paladin had taken Chris there after buying him from the
New Bethlehem orphanage. He wanted Chris to see his predecessors, all orphans
sold to trade, all killed in the field less than two years after Paladin
purchased them.

Chris wondered if they were the lucky ones. He had been stuck with Paladin's
cold, brooding abuse for six years.
He would still be stuck, unless the Air Corps nabbed him. God, how he wanted to
be a pilot. To fly across the river, to fly through space and time.

To fly the hell away from his current life.