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

Inside, there were two more. Moving as if the stolen Judas jackets
belonged to them, Johnny and Netta flipped the two a casual greeting and
started up the stairs. One of the Judas's called up.
"You say Moe said it was okay for you to come in?"
"Yeah. Said we could take a look at this crazy bomb."
 "Well," the Judas said, "I dunno…"
"C'mon," his partner whined. "C'mon, let's go over to the locker and get
a beer." They headed for a freezer in the long-disabled elevator and Netta
and Johnny disappeared around a bend in the towering stone stairs.
They toiled up in total darkness, listening to the hollow sound of their
feet rattle up and down the empty shaft. Once Netta tripped and fell
against the wire netting that covered the elevator track, and Johnny took
her arm. They went on and on until they rounded the last bend and dim
light shone on the steps from a doorway at the top. They stood in the
half-darkness until their eyes were acclimated and then burst into the
small stone room.
In a transparent casing on a - square pedestal glowed the bomb. Johnny
headed for it without even stopping to see who guarded it. Suddenly he
felt something hard in his ribs.
"And who do you think you are?"
"Bug you," Johnny said, and he turned. "Wha-ah———"
The man with the gun had a hard face and a cool, grey eye. His hand
was steady and he was ready to kill. He was old - almost forty. He was a
square. Johnny turned cold eyes on him. "Daddy-o?"
"Not just me. All of us."
Sternly, the man dug at his ribs. "I thought Daddy-o told you to stay
away from this room. Daddy-o told you he'd watch the bomb for the Judas
Gang."
"You think we're Judas, man?" Ignoring the gun, Johnny whipped off
the jacket. "We're Hypos."
The square smiled thinly. "And I suppose you came up here to steal the
bomb."
"Something like that, man." Johnny backed away to stand beside Netta
on the far side of the room. The man with the gun moved closer to them.
"You'll get your own bomb, Hypos. The sooner the better."
"From squares? Bug you."
"You'll get your bomb, because every other mob will have a bomb, just
like the Judas Gang." The square laughed. "You'll get your little present
from old guys. Us Daddy-os."
"We'll blast you, Daddy-o." Johnny ached to jump for the gun.
"Oh, no. You'll be just like the Judas Gang. They think they control us,
but they don't. They think they have the bomb, but they don't." He smiled.
"They have us, and we have the bomb."
Johnny growled.
The square went on. "They sense that now, but they don't want to admit
it. They sense it and it's put them off their feed. They don't even enjoy a
good girl, or a good fight, because somehow the word's begun to spread
that if they fight, or if they fool around too much, the bomb just might go
off, and that would be too bad. They're lucky boys to get bombs from their
Daddy-o." The man patted the casing of the bomb. "When we've given one