"Kit Reed - Judas Bomb" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Kit)

"Let's go to Squareville and get a meal."
They stopped in one of the square villages-a miserable Levittown - and
one of the nursewomen gave them some cake and cheese. They sprawled
on the lawn, eating, and watched the neighbourhood kids. Johnny, who
had run in packs since his childhood, had never talked to another person
alone. Sharing the food gave him a strange sense of intimacy. They began
to talk.
"You grow up in a place like this?" Netta asked.
 "From when I was two until I was old enough to join a pack. My old lady
shot herself the same day my old man got his. He was a brave one."
Johnny's eyes softened. "Did it with a belly-bomb - wiped out about fifty
guys in a rumble with the Bishops' mob."
"I had a mother," Netta sneered. "The old lady didn't have the guts to
die when Pop got his. Said she was only eighteen and she couldn't see
cashing in just because it was time for Pop to die."
"You going to do that?"
"I'll die with my guy- if I ever get a guy-if I don't get one, I'll just go
when it's time. I'll find a way." She spat.
"It's gonna be soon for me." Johnny looked thoughtful.
In the days when the young ruled, a guy was through at twenty, and he
did the only decent thing a guy could do when his life was over. He went
out in a rumble and got his, and if he couldn't do it that way he found
some other way to die.
With girls it didn't matter so much. If they lived there were always kids
they could raise. There had to be a lot of kids.
You could spot the guy who was too chicken to die while you were still a
kid, running in one of the neighbourhood packs, and you never let him
earn his jacket and become one of the gang. He stayed in Squaresville all
his life and he worked his fool head off for you, because if he worked, and
kept his nose clean, the gang might let him live. He got squarer and
squarer. He got old.
Johnny and Netta were ready to go when a pack of kids spotted their
jackets and came over, shrilling a thousand questions and jumping up and
down. When they were on their 'cicles, the pair discovered that the kids
had stolen Netta's knife. It made them proud.
They circled over the marker that divided the Hypos' territory from the
land of the Judas Gang, and at dark they went over the Delaware River,
looking for a scout from the other gang. They set down near a roadhouse,
where noise and yellow light spilled out into the dark, and hid their 'cicles
in the bushes. Crouched in the darkness, they watched the Judas guys and
their Judys come out, two by two, and go into the shadows to neck. A guy
came out alone and Netta gave Johnny a dig in the ribs. He nodded and
she stood up, reversing her jacket so the Hypo silver was turned to the
inside, and made a low sound that could mean only one thing, no matter
which gang you ran with. The Judas flipped a knife into the tree just
behind Netta's head. She grinned.
 "Well, well, well…" He ambled forward until he saw her face-then his lip
crinkled in distaste and he started to back away, but it was too late.
Johnny was on him. When they got him into the bushes Netta,
remembering the look, hit him especially hard.