"Ludlum, Robert - The Parcifal Mosaic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ludlum Robert)

"Many did not."

The blond woman rose, spinning in the sand, pulling at the wild grass,
plunging to her right, for several seconds eluding the beam of light. She
beaded toward the dirt road above the beach, staying in darkness, crouching,
lunging, using the cover of night and the patches of tall grass to conceal
her body.
It would not do her any good, thought the tall man in the black sweater at
his post between two trees above the road, above the terrible violence that
was taking place below, above the panicked woman who would be dead in
moments. He bad looked down at her once before, not so very long ago. She
had not been panicked then; she had been magnificent.

He folded the curtain back slowly, carefully in the dark office, his back
pressed against the wall, his face inching toward the window. He could see
her below, crossing the floodlit courtyard, the tattoo of her high heels
against the cobblestones echoing martially up between the surrounding
buildings. The guards were recessed in shadows--outlines of sullen mario-
 THE PARSIFAL MOSAIC5

nettes in their Soviet-style uniforms. Heads turned, signifying
appreciative glances directed at the figure striding confi-
='y to7h ;dstttiron gate in the center of the iron fence
ngcompound that was the core of Prague's
secret police. The thoughts behind the glances were clear:
this was no mere secretary working overtime, this was a pnv
ileged kurva who took dictation on a commissar`8 couch till all
hours of the night.
But others, too, were watching-from other darkened windows. One break in
her confident stride, one instant of hesitation, and a phone would be
picked up and orders of detention issued to the gate. Embarrassments, of
course, were to be avoided where commissars were concerned, but not if
there appeared to be substance behind suspicions. Everything was
appearance.
There was no break, no hesitation. She was carrying it ofiF
. carrying it outl They had done itt Suddenly he felt a folt Of pain in his
chest, he knew what it was. Fear. Pure, raw, sickening fear. He was
remembering-memories within memories. As he watched her his mind went back
to a city In rubble, to the terrible sounds of mass execution. Lidice. And
a child-one of many children-scurrying through the billowIng gray smoke of
burning debris, carrying messages and pockets full of plastic explosives.
One break, one hesitation, then ... history.
She reached the gate. An obsequious guard was permitted to leer. She was
magnificent. God, he loved hert

She had reached the shoulder of the road, legs and arms working furiously,
digging into the sand and the dirt, clawing for survival. With no wild grass
to conceal her, she would be seen; the beam of light would find her, and the
end would come quickly.
He watched, suspending emotion, erasing pain, a human litmus accepting