"Lawrence Watt-Evans - The Murderer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

different, my knowledge of history didn't help me any more."
 "I still don't understand. What's special about 1914?"
"That's when the Great War was supposed to start."
Stein sighed. "Mr. Jones, I was just a baby at the time, and you were a grown man, but even I know
the Great War started in 1921."
Jones nodded. "That's right," he said. "I'd bought seven years. So I wasn't sure, any more, whether the
rest were still dangerous. But I knew what they could do, if history allowed it, so I tracked down Hitler
and the others. And the Second World War never happened."
"Second World War. You say these men you killed would have started it?"
"Some of them, yes."
"And that's the justification for killing them?"
Jones nodded.
"You really did this?" Stein asked, still trying to absorb it. The time travel part was nonsense, but the
rest... "You really went all over the world killing people who would have started wars, people I never
heard of?"
"Well," Jones explained, "You have to get them early, before they become famous, before they have
bodyguards, or followers who will carry on for them."
"But then they haven't done anything yet," Stein objected.
"I'm not in the business of punishment," Jones said. "I'm in the business of prevention."
"You didn't prevent the Great War."
"I tried," Jones said, "But I'm just one man. And I don't know what's going to happen anymore, any
more than you do. It's all changed too much."
"But you killed this kid anyway. With a shotgun."
"I'm an old man. My aim isn't what it used to be."
"And you didn't get away this time."
Jones shrugged.
"So was Ted Bundy going to start a Second World War?"
"No," Jones said. "He was just going to kill people."
"Are you sure?"
"Oh, yes," Jones said, "I'm sure."
Stein stood up. "I'll plead insanity," he said. "If you give the jury this story and we play up your age,
they may decide you're harmless. But you'll be spending the rest of your life locked up, Mr. Jones; that's
the best we can hope for."
"Mr. Stein," Jones said, "It was worth it. Even if I get the chair, it was worth it."
Stein frowned. "If this is all true, if you killed these people, you'll go down as one of the greatest
murderers of the twentieth century, Mr. Jones; how can anything be worth it?"
Jones burst out laughing and almost fell; the guard at the door turned, ready to intervene, but Stein
waved him away.
A moment later Jones was in his chair again. "Mr. Stein," he said, more soberly, "If I can go down in
history as one of the greatest killers of the twentieth century, with a mere dozen deaths to my name, that's
why it was worth it!"
Stein stared at him, uncomprehending, as Jones laughed and laughed and laughed.