"Lawrence Watt - Evans - One of the Boys" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

He shrugged. “You always know who the bad guys are,” he said. “You know what the point of the
whole thing is.”

She didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure she could still talk.

“So now you know,” he said at last. “Not just who I am, but what I am.”

She nodded.

“I don’t want you to tell anyone,” he said.

Even across the species boundary, she thought the threat in his face was clear. “I didn’t think you
would,” she said, her voice a rasp.

“Or you’d have told them yourself.”
“So will you stay quiet?”

She nodded.

He stared at her, hesitating. Then he plunged.

“You know,” he said, “I can’t read your face very well. I don’t understand how you think. I don’t know
if I can trust you.”

“You can trust me,” she protested, whispering. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“I don’t know that,” he said. “So let me tell you something, Ms. Rosalie Dutton. You aren’t my kind.
You could ruin everything. If you tell anybody any of this stuff, I will hunt you down, and I will kill you.
With my bare hands.” He picked a book off the nearest shelf, a thick hardcover, and crushed it between
his hands. Shredded paper fluttered to the floor.

She stared in horror at this final ghastly perversion of her dream.

“But you’re a hero,” she whispered. “One of the good guys.”

“Yes,” he said. “That’s the role I picked. I like it. And I want to stay one of the good guys. I don’t want
to be an alien monster. Don’t make me be an alien monster.”

“I won’t tell,” she said. “I swear. I won’t say anything. Ever.” The room was swimming; she couldn’t
breathe, her face was soaked with sweat, her hands trembled in fear and confusion.

“Good,” he said. He glanced at the serving window. “Would you like to stay to dinner, then?”

She gasped, and fainted.

He watched her fall, frowning.

As he picked up her limp body, he wondered if he would ever really make good on the threat, and he
didn’t know. He didn’t think he would ever need to; he thought Rosalie Dutton would keep her mouth