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| There were two of them. | Их было двое. |
| One was in his middle forties. He was a big mother, about six foot three, and all muscle. | Одному лет за сорок - здоровый громила около шести футов трех дюймов, весь из мускулов. |
| He had a massive head with deep-set steely blue eyes and a weary, humorless mouth. | Массивная голова, глубоко сидящие стального цвета глаза и усталый неулыбчивый рот. |
| The second man was younger. His features were clean-cut, sensitive. | Второй помоложе, с чувственными, правильными чертами лица. |
| His eyes were brown and alert. | Глаза карие, живые. |
| The two men looked completely different and yet, as far as Carol was concerned, they could have been identical twins. | Два совершенно разных человека, но для Кэрол они были как близнецы. |
| They were fuzz. That was what she had smelled. | Чутье подсказало ей, что это копы. |
| As they moved toward her desk she could feel the drops of perspiration begin to trickle down her armpits through the shield of anti-perspirant. Frantically her mind darted over all the treacherous areas of vulnerability. | Пока они приближались к столу, она ощутила, как капли пота стекают по ее подмышкам сквозь защитный слой дезодоранта. |
| Chick? | Неужели Чик? |
| Christ, he had kept out of trouble for over six months. | Боже, он держался в стороне от неприятностей больше шести месяцев. |
| Since that night in his apartment when he had asked her to marry him and had promised to quit the gang. | После той ночи у нее, когда он просил ее выйти за него и обещал покинуть шайку. |
| Sammy? | Сэмми? |
| He was overseas in the Air Force, and if anything had happened to her brother, they would not have sent these two mothers to break the news. | Он служил в воздушных войсках за океаном, и если что-то и приключилось с ее братом, они бы не прислали этих двух громил, чтобы просто сообщить новости. |
| No, they were here to bust her. | Нет, они здесь, чтобы расколоть ее. |
| She was carrying grass in her purse, and some loudmouthed prick had rapped about it. | В своей сумочке она носила "травку", и какой-то подонок настучал на нее. |
| But why two of them? | Но почему их двое? |
| Carol tried to tell herself that they could not touch her. | Кэрол старалась внушить себе, что они ее не тронут. |
| She was no longer some dumb black hooker from Harlem that they could push around. Not any more. | Она уже не была глупой черной шлюхой из Гарлема, с которой могли обращаться грубо. |
| She was the receptionist for one of the biggest psychoanalysts in the country. | Она секретарша одного из крупнейших психоаналитиков в стране. |
| But as the two men moved toward her, Carol's panic increased. There was the feral memory of too many years of hiding in stinking, overcrowded tenement apartments while the white Law broke down doors and hauled away a father, or a sister, or a cousin. |