"Blish, James - To Pay the Piper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

beside one of the entries on the protocol. Mudgett stared at
the checked item.
"Platelets Rh VI?" he mumbled. "But what's that got to do
with . . . Oh. Oh, I see. That platelet type doesn't exist at all
in our population now, does it? Never seen it before myself,
at least."
"No," Carson said, grinning wolfishly. "It never was com-
mon in the West, and the pogrom of 1981 wiped it out.
That's something the enemy couldn't know. But the machine
knows it. As soon as it gives him the standard anti-IV desen-
sitization shot, his platelets will begin to dissolveand he'll
be rejected for incipient thrombocytopenia." He laughed.
"For his own protection! But"
"But he's getting nitrous oxide in the machine, and he'll
be held six hours under anesthesia anyhowalso for his own
protection," Mudgett broke in. He was grinning back at
Carson like an idiot. "When he comes out from under, he'll
assume that he's been re-educated, and he'll beat it back to
the enemy to report that he's poisoned our machine, so that
they can be sure they'll beat us to the surface. And he'll go
the fastest way: overland."
"He will," Carson agreed. "Of course he'll go overland,
and of course he'll die. But where does that leave us? We
won't be able to conceal that he was treated here, if there's
any sort of inquiry at all. And his death will make everything
we do here look like a fraud. Instead of paying our Pied
Piperand great jumping Jehoshaphat, look at his name!
They were rubbing our noses in it all the time! Nevertheless,
we didn't pay the piper; we killed him. And 'platelets Rh
VI' won't be an adequate excuse for the press, or for
Hamelin's following."
"It doesn't worry me," Mudgett rumbled. "Who'll know?
He won't die in our labs. He'll leave here hale and hearty.
He won't die until he makes a break for the surface. After
that we can compose a fine obituary for the press. Heroic
government official, on the highest policy levelcouldn't wait
to lead his followers to the surfacedied of being too much
in a hurryRe-Ed Project sorrowfully reminds everyone that
no technique is foolproof . . ."
Mudgett paused long enough to light a cigarette, which
was a most singular action for a man who never smoked. "As
a matter of fact, Carson," he said, "it's a natural."
Carson considered it. It seemed to hold up. And "Hamelin"
would have a death certificate as complex as he deserved
not officially, of course, but in the minds of everyone who
knew the facts. His death, when it came, would be due directly
to the thrombocytopenia which had caused the Re-Ed machine
to reject himand thrombocytopenia is a disease of infants.
Unless ye become as little children . . .
That was a fitting reason for rejection from the new