"John Varley - Anthology - Super Heroes - Various Authors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Varley John)

his mother.
"That restraining order in place, Revenant entered into a criminal
conspiracy with Martin Hopkins to violate that order and commit numerous
felonies."
 ***
Martin Hopkins never would have described himself as a brave man. A
brave man, he told himself, would be able to fight his own battles. He could
not, and he acknowledged that fact right along with his failure in any of a
number of other areas of his life. Even this appeal might fail, but he was
desperate to do anything that might save Maria. Desperate enough to
overcome his fear of anything that even remotely looked outside the law and
especially anything that had to do with Revenant.
Martin Hopkins in no way looked the part of a hero and
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certainly didn't feel it, even though a friend he told about the meeting said
he had to have balls the size of planets to actually want to meet with
Revenant. Short and stout, with a pencil-thin moustache and a double chin
that rested on the top of his barrel chest, Martin crept into the warehouse
Revenant had designated for their meeting as if he were the lead in a very,
very bad spy movie. The belt barely kept an old trench coat closed, and the
requisite fedora had given way to a Yankees baseball cap.
Revenant cleared his throat and Martin spun, clutching at his chest as he
saw the shadowed outline of a man. "You wanted to see meT'
"Whoa, jeez, don't do that." Martin caught his breath, then doffed his cap
and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "I'm sorry, sir, I mean…" Frustration
and fatigue wove their way through the man's voice, bringing it to the edge
of cracking. "Look, I don't have any money. It's all tied up in the operation."
Revenant slipped from the shadows that had hidden him. "You are getting
ahead of yourself. You are Martin Hopkins, forty-one, divorced, two
children. Maria is nineteen and Nathan is six. You are the manager of
Northwoods Lumber." Revenant's voice, calm and even, drained away some
of the panic causing Martin's heart to jackhammer in his chest. "Your
ex-wife has your son in a religious commune in New Hampshire."
Martin's brown eyes grew wide. "Good, that's good, that you know that
stuff I mean. That's good."
Revenant inclined his head toward the shorter man. "And why would that
be good?"
Martin swallowed with difficulty, his tongue thick in a dry mouth. "Look,
my daughter, Maria, she's in the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont over
in Burlington. She has leukemia and is going to die. The doctors say she
needs marrow for a transplant and I'm not a good donor. Nathan is, but
Je-anette…"
A lump in his throat choked off the rest of his words. He opened his
hands toward Revenant and sniffed.
Revenant's head came up, and Hopkins felt the man's
 Michael A. Stackpole
green-eyed gaze pierce his soul. "Your wife is aware of Maria's condition
and will not allow the donation?"
Martin nodded. "I know Nathan would be willing. He loves his sister."
Martin swiped at his nose with his sleeve. "Reverend Sunnington—I called