Читать книгу The Grand Dark онлайн | страница 70

“Don’t get it on you,” someone shouted, and the crowd moved farther back. Largo felt sympathy for the soldier, but he couldn’t waste any more time. He was starting to ride away from the scene when someone grabbed him from behind.

“Where do you think you’re going?” said the police officer. He was about Largo’s height, with dark lanky hair that fell into his hard eyes. His black uniform had three silver stripes near the cuffs. A bullock Sergeant, thought Largo. The officer had a fistful of Largo’s coat in one hand and a truncheon in the other.

“Nowhere, sir,” said Largo. “I can’t think of anywhere else I’d like to be on such a beautiful morning.”

The officer looked up at the fog- and smoke-choked sky, then back at Largo. “What a clever young man you are,” he said. “Wait here.”

The Sergeant left and came back with a man in a long gray coat. He was much older than the Sergeant and very thin, with sharp protruding cheekbones. An undercover bullock. Largo despised ordinary police, but this covert one frightened him. Could he have signaled the Sergeant to grab Largo?

The undercover officer wore thick rubber gloves and held a large rolled-up sheet of paper.

“Do you know what this is?” he said.

“I have no idea,” said Largo.

The officer let the poster fall open. It was something political. There were strange symbols in one corner. In the center was a burning Proszawan flag being held by a caricatured figure Largo assumed was a politician.

“I’m Special Operative Tanz,” said the undercover officer. “What do you know about this?”

“Nothing,” said Largo.

“Really? They’re all over the city. Are you claiming to have never seen one before?”

“I’m not very political, sir.”

Tanz and the Sergeant glanced at each other. The Sergeant said, “What’s your name?”

“Largo Moorden.”

Tanz said, “That man back there is a radical. An anarchist. How do you know him?”

“I don’t,” said Largo.

“You were trying to run away,” said the Sergeant.

“No, I wasn’t. I was going to work.”

“You told me you had nowhere else to be.”