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Автор Джон Варли

John Varley

Red Thunder

John Varley

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are

the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any

resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments,

events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

RED THUNDER

An Ace Book

Published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

a division of Penguin Putnam Inc. ,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

Text design by Kristin del Rosario.

reproduced in any form without permission

without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only

authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of

copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

ACE and the “A” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Putnam Inc.

First edition: April 2003

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Varley, John, 1947-

Red thunder / John Varley. -1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-441-01015-6 (alk. paper)

I. Title.

PS3572.

A724R42003

813’. 54-dc21

2002038231

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Spider Robinson and

Robert A. Heinlein

for the inspiration;

and to Lee, for that,

and everything else.

PROLOGUE

* * *

INSPIRATION IS WHERE you find it. You can’t force it, and you can’t predict when and where it will come. I had nothing to do with the inspiration that made our great adventure possible. But the inspiration that made it practical came to me while I was walking with my friend Dak through a railroad freight yard in my hometown of Daytona.

Dak is a string bean, well over six feet, and could hide behind a flagpole. African-American, though he doesn’t use the term, and fairly dark. Dak is short for Daktari, which is Swahili for doctor, “A hell of a thing to wish on a newborn baby,” he once said. He’s my age, from the same graduating class but different high schools. We often took these long walks, often on the tracks. Here we sorted out the big questions of life. Is there a God? Are we alone in the universe? Is Britney Spears too old to stay on the Top Ten Babe of All Time list? Would Al Johnson switch to Team Chevy before the next 500?

“Does it look like rain?”

I looked around and sniffed the air.

“Sure does. ” Thunderheads were towering in the east, and what else is new? This was Florida, it rained every day. Today the temperature was only about eighty, but the humidity was 210 percent.