The Prophet

Начало книги

For Jerry Kushnick— a good agent, a good friend...

Any resemblance to persons, governments, businesses, or governmental entities living, dead, or operating or having operated is purely coincidental.

Chapter One

The climb down from the rocks to their base had been hard— hard for Natalia whose skin color was still too pale, arduous for the wounded as well. Rourke again carried Natalia' s M-16, Rubenstein her pack. Cole and his two men had hung back, a rear guard against a further attack by the wildmen, but judging from the primitive quality of their actions, Rourke doubted the wildmen would come nearer the valley— at least not until it was realized that he and the others could travel the valley safely and not die from radiation— Rourke hoped.

Well ahead of them, Paul walked, the wand of the Geiger counter extended ahead of him, his voice occasionally singing back an all clear. The only danger would be a freak combining of isotopes during the small conventional blasts needed to trigger the neutron release— and if Paul Rubenstein did find a hot spot, by the time he had the reading on his Geiger counter it would be too late to save himself, given the lack of availability of any decontamination equipment.

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