"James Rollins - Black Order" - читать интересную книгу автора (Romeyn Henry)

boats to cross the channel to their location.
Jakob turned to Tola. She still carried the child. The boy had quieted again, his eyes closed.
Tola met Jakob's gaze, unflinching. "You know my father was right," she said with quiet certainty. Her
gaze flicked to the sealed crates, then back to him. "I can see it in your face. What we did...we went too
far."
"Such decisions are not for either of us to decide," Jakob answered.
"Then who?"
Jakob shook his head and began to turn away. Heinrich Himmler had personally given him his orders. It
was not his place to question. Still, he felt
the woman's attention on him.
"It defies God and nature," she whispered.
A call saved him from responding. "The boats come," the radioman announced, returning from the mouth
of the storm drain.
Jakob barked final orders and got his men into position. He led them to the end of the tunnel, which
opened onto the steep bank of the River Oder. They were losing the cover of darkness. Sunrise glowed
to the east, but here a continuous cloud of black smoke hung low over the water, drawn thick by the
river draft. The pall would help shelter them.
But for how long?
Gunfire continued its oddly merry chatter, firecrackers to celebrate the destruction of Breslau.
Free of the sewer's stink, Jakob pulled away his wet mask and took a deep clean breath. He searched
the lead gray waters. A pair of twenty-foot low boats knifed across the river, engines burbling a steady
drone. At each bow,barely concealed under green tarps, a pair of MG-42 machine guns had been
mounted.
Beyond the boats, a dark mass of island was just visible. Cathedral Island was not truly an island, as it
had accumulated enough silt back in the nineteenth century to fuse to the far bank. A cast-iron emerald
green bridge dating back to the same century crossed to this side. Beneath the bridge, the two gunboats
skirted its stone piers and approached.
Jakob's eyes were drawn upward as a piercing ray of sunlight struck the tips of the two towering spires
of the cathedral that gave the former island its name. It was one of a half-dozen churches crowded on the
island.
Jakob's ears still rang with Tola Hirszfeld's words.
It defies God and nature.
The morning chill penetrated his sodden clothes, leaving his skin prickling and cold. He would be glad
when he was well away from here, able to shut out all memory of these past days.
The first of the boats reached the shoreline. Glad for the distraction, even happier to be moving, he
hurried his men to load the two boats.
Tola stood off to the side, babe in her arms, flanked by the one guard. Her eyes had also discovered the
glowing spires in the smoky skies. Gunfire continued, moving closer now. Tanks could be heard grinding
in low gears. Cries and screams punctuated it all.
Where was this God she feared defying?
Certainly not here.
With the boats loaded, Jakob moved to Tola's side. "Get on the boat." He had meant to be stern, but
something in her face softened his words.
She obeyed, her attention still on the cathedral, her thoughts even further skyward.
In that moment, Jakob saw the beauty she could be...even though she was a Mischlinge. But then the toe
of her boot stubbed, she stumbled and caught herself, careful of the babe. Her eyes returned to the gray
waters and smokypall. Her face hardened again, gone stony. Even her eyes turned flinty as she cast
about for a seat for her and the baby.
She settled on a starboard bench, her guard moving in step with her.
Jakob sat across from them and waved to the boat's pilot to set out. "We must not be late." He searched