"William W. Johnstone - Ashes 01 - Out of the Ashes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

into the night, the door closing softly behind him.

Ben sat down. He looked at the half-full glass of bourbon and water on the table. He picked it up and
emptied it without taking the glass from his lips.

Bull and Adams alive? No way.

Ben Raines laughed and put the mysterious visit out of his mind. He put on a symphony and got drunk
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while listening to it. The next morning, the visit was hazy in his mind. After a week, he had forgotten all
about it.

PART ONE

ONE


Washington, D.C., 1988

“Maybe historians will treat me in a more humane fashion than the press has for the past eight years,”
President Fayers remarked to his wife. “But sometimes I wonder.”

“You've done a lot of good things over the years, Ed.” She smiled at him, patting his hand. “SALT 5
was only one of them. It's taken you time, and you didn't win all the battles, but you certainly didn't lose
the war.”

“Then why, for the past several months, have I had this ... uneasy feeling in my guts that ... oh, hell,
honey—I don't know. I've been a politician all my life. And Iknow something is going on. I can't put my
finger on it, but ... something is crawling around the gutters of this city. Some ... secret I should know.”

His wife studied him. She knew only too well the sixth sense career politicians develop over the years,
and knew it was not to be taken lightly. Her husband had had his finger on the pulse of the world for
more than forty years, for the past eight as president of the United States. If he believed something was
amiss ... it was.

“Ed, this unknown ... quantum bothers you that much?”

“Yes, it does, honey. Ever since that gun-control bill went through, the unrest in this country has been
building. Baby, citizens of this country—not criminals—have been beaten, jailed, andkilled , simply
because they clung to the belief—a correct belief, I might add—that they had a right to own a gun. Damn
that Hilton Logan for the son of a bitch he is! He and that pack of liberal bastards really stirred it up with
that gun-control bill.”

“You didn't sign it, Ed. Don't forget that.”

“It still became law.”