"Tim Lebbon - The Origin Of Truth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lebbon Tim)

"What did you say, honey?" Some cars passed the other way, one of them
flashing its lights, but he ignored them. As far as he knew Gemma had never
read any Poe, let alone read about the man.

"Nothing, Dad."

"She's tired and scared, Doug," Lucy-Anne said quietly, so that the sound of
the engine would cover her words. "Let's just aim north and leave it at that.
When we get there …" She trailed off without substituting the word if for
when.

Doug mentally did it for her.

Another car passed with flashing lights, its driver waving frantically as he
sped by.

"Now what?" Doug slowed the car and eased it around a bend in the A-road. When
he saw what faced them his foot slipped from the accelerator, and the car
drifted onto the grass verge and came to a halt. He forgot to use the brakes.
For a while, he forgot even to breathe.

Lucy-Anne was a good mother. She twisted in her seat and motioned Gemma to
her, holding her yet again and shielding the girl's eyes with the back of her
seat.

"Get us out of here," she said. "Doug, get us out of here. Doug, wake up …"

As the men looked up and saw him staring at them, Doug shoved the car into
reverse. He slammed his foot on the gas and glanced in the rearview mirror. If
there was another car coming they would meet, crash and burn. At least he
hoped they would burn; he did not want to be left alive for these men to be
able to get him, and to Lucy-Anne and Gemma, and do to them what they were
doing to the family on the road ahead.

It was the dog that shocked Doug more than anything. Why the dog?

The engine screamed as the car slewed across the road. He glanced back at the
scene receding in front of them and saw that the men had gone back to their
business. It did not matter. He did not let up on the gas until he had
clumsily steered back around the bend and spun into a farm gate to turn
around. He smelled an acidic burning, the car crunched against a stone wall,
Gemma finally struggled from Lucy-Anne's grip and screamed.

Doug felt like screaming as well. Yesterday, normality, tainted with disquiet
over what was apparently happening in the Mediterranean, and a subdued fear
that it may come closer.

Today, this.

He shook his head and flicked tears across the dashboard. "We'll try another