couch [kaVC], hybrid ['haIbrId], palm [pRm], stare [stFq], unimaginative ['AnI'mxG(I)nqtIv], superstition ["sjHpq'stIS(q)n], although [Ll'DqV]
Halston moved quickly. His reflexes were his life and they were always set on a filed pin. He was off the couch, falling to one knee, turning, hand inside his specially tailored sport coat, gripping the handle of the short-barreled .45 hybrid that hung below his armpit in a spring-loaded holster that laid it in his palm at a touch. A moment later it was out and pointed at...a cat.
For a moment Halston and the cat stared at each other. It was a strange moment for Halston, who was an unimaginative man with no superstitions. For that one moment as he knelt on the floor with the gun pointed, he felt that he knew this cat, although if he had ever seen one with such unusual markings he surely would have remembered.
Its face was an even split (ее морда была словно расколота надвое;
to run
And the thought echoed back to Halston: We know each other, you and I. Then it passed. He put the gun away and stood up. “I ought to kill you for that, old man. I don't take a joke.”
“And I don't make them,” Drogan said. “Sit down. Look in here.” He had taken a fat envelope out from beneath the blanket that covered his legs.
Halston sat. The cat, which had been crouched on the back of the sofa, jumped lightly down into his lap. It looked up at Halston for a moment with those huge dark eyes, the pupils surrounded by thin green-gold rings, and then it settled down and began to purr.
Halston looked at Drogan questioningly (Хэлстон вопросительно посмотрел на Дрогана;
pussy — киска, кошечка; household — семейство; все кто живет в конкретном доме
“I can't believe this (я не могу в это поверить),” Halston said. “You hired me to hit a cat (вы наняли меня, чтобы я убил кошку)?”
“Look in the envelope, please (загляните в этот конверт, пожалуйста).”
Halston did (Хэлстон /так и/ сделал = открыл его). It was filled with hundreds and fifties (он =
fee — вознаграждение, гонорар
only — одинокий; единственный; to do — в утвердительных предложениях употребляется для усиления значения последующего глагола
perfect — совершенный; идеальный; aloof — сторонящийся; равнодушный
question ['kwesC(q)n], prefer [prI'fW], thousand ['TaVz(q)nd]
Halston looked at Drogan questioningly.
"He's very friendly," Drogan said. "At first. Nice friendly pussy has killed three people in this household. That leaves only me. I am old, I am sick ... but I prefer to die in my own time."
"I can't believe this," Halston said. "You hired me to hit a cat?"
"Look in the envelope, please."
Halston did. It was filled with hundreds and fifties, all of them old.
"How much is it?"
"Six thousand dollars. There will be another six when you bring me proof that the cat is dead. Mr. Loggia said twelve thousand was your usual fee?"