"Zelazny, Roger - Amber 07 - Blood Of Amber" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

Anyhow, I returned to the shadow Earth where I'd been making my home to
discover that Melman's place had burned down during my absence. I tried phoning
Luke, because I wanted to have dinner with him, and learned that he had checked
out of his motel, leaving me a message indicating that he had gone to New Mexico
on business and telling me where he'd be staying. The desk clerk also gave me a
blue-stone ring Luke had left behind, and I took it with me to return when I saw
him.
I flew to New Mexico, finally catching up with Luke in Santa Fe. While I
waited in the bar for him to be ready for dinner, a man named Dan Martinez
questioned me, giving the impression that Luke had propose some business deal
and that he wanted to be assured Luke was reliable and could deliver. After
dinner, Luke and I went for a drive in the mountains. Martinez followed us and
started shooting as we stood admiring the night. Perhaps he'd decided Luke was
not reliable or couldn't deliver. Luke surprised me by drawing a weapon of his
own and shooting Martinez. Then an even stranger thing happened. Luke called me
by name--my real name, which I'd never told him--and cited my parentage and told
me to get into the car and get the hell out. He emphasized his point by placing
a shot in the ground near my feet. The matter did not seem open to discussions
so I departed. He also told me to destroy those strange Trumps that had saved my
life once already. And I'd learned on the way of that he'd known Victor
Melman....
I didn't go far. I parked downhill and return on foot. Luke was gone. Soul
was Martinez's body. Look did not return to the hotel, that night or the next
day, so I checked out and departed. The only person I was sure I could trust,
and who actually might have some good advice for me, was Bill Roth. Bill was an
attorney who lived in upstate New York, and he had been my father's best friend.
I went to visit him, and I told him my story.
Bill got me to wondering even more about Luke. Luke, by the way, is a big,
smart, red-haired natural athlete of uncanny prowess--and though we'd been
friends for the years I knew next to nothing (and Bill pointed out) concerning
his background.
A neighboring lead named George Hansen began hanging out near bill's place,
asking strange questions. I received an odd phone call, asking similar
questions. Both interrogators seemed curious as to my mother's name. Naturally,
I lied. the fact that my mother is a member of the dark aristocracy of the
Courts of Chaos was none of their business. But the caller spoke my language,
Thari, which may be curious enough to propose a meeting and a trade-off of
information that evening in the bar of the local country club.
But my Uncle Random, King of Amber, told me home before that, while Bill
and I were out hiking. George Hansen, it turned out, was following us and wanted
to come along as we shifted away across the shadows of reality. Tough; he wasn't
invited. I took Bill along because I didn't want to leave him with anyone acting
that particular.
I learned from Random that my Uncle Caine was dead, of an assassin's
bullet, and that someone had also tried to kill my Uncle Bleys but only
succeeded in wounding him. The funeral service for Caine would be the following
day.
I kept date at the country club that evening, but my mysterious interrogar
was nowhere in sight. All was not lost, however, as I made the acquaintance of a
pretty lady named Meg Devlin--and, one thing leading to another, I saw her home