"Nancy Kress - Stinger" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

STINGER
Nancy Kress
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and
events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or
are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 1998 by Nancy Kress
A Forge Book Published by Tom Doherty
Associates, Inc.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.” ISBN
0-312-86536-8
First Edition: October 1998




New kinds of evil threaten democratic
institutions in these closing days of the
twentieth century. They must be
addressed quickly and comprehensively.
—Louis J. Freeh, Director, Federal
Bureau of Investigation, 1996



PROLOGUE
MAY 2

The green Chevy Lumina sped through the
darkness. For several miles the two men inside said
nothing, until the driver yawned and the other said,
“Tired?”
“It’s three in the goddamn morning.”
“Yeah.”
 “Well, we’re almost to Virginia. Bridge is just a
few miles away.”
“Pretty heavy woods.”
“The ass end of nowhere.”
The passenger didn’t reply. He stared at the road
ahead. The car’s headlights carved a narrow lighted
path down the highway, itself a gray slash through
the black silhouettes of oak, hickory, southern pine.
Once the driver reached for the radio, glanced at
the other man’s face, and drew back his hand.
Another car, the first in several minutes,
approached in the other lane, and both drivers
switched from high beams to low.
The huge buck in full spring antlers dashed from
the woods so fast it seemed to materialize directly
in front of the Lumina. The driver cried, “Son of a
bitch!” and wrenched the wheel to the left,