"Kelley Eskridge - Alien Jane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eskridge Kelly)

"Let me see her, Rita." And so I had to let go. My hands still felt full of her even when they were empty.

Rousseau said something to ]ane I couldn't hear. Jane shook her head, eyes still shut, face pale and moist
under the hot lights.

"What's this?" Rousseau said.

She had found the bandage on fane's arm. When she peeled it back, the arm was white around a stripe
of red, and in the center of the stripe was a blister, raw and mnny. The smell was worse with the bandage
off.

Rousseau looked up at Novak. Beitrg next to her made me feel cold.

"It was an accident," he said. "We were testing her for heat response, one of the techs pushed the dial up
a little too high." He shifted, jammed his hands into his coat pockets, shrugged like he thought Rousseau
was being ridiculous. She still hadn't spoken. She was so tense I thought she might break apart if she
made a sound.

"Oh, come on, Elaine. Nobody got hurt."

"What do you call thisP" Her voice was very soft.

"I call it an accident, for chrissakes. It's no big deal. She didn't feel a thing."

Jane began to cry.

Rousseau put the bandage back over the wound and smoothed down the tape. She stood up. "I'm
reportittg this," she said, still speaking softly. "I won't let you harm one of my patients, not that." It was
like she was talhng to herself.

"She's not really your patient anymore."

"You can't do that."

"I already have. She signed the consent form, she's a volunteer. I can do her a lot of good."

"You don't have enough clout for this. I don't care what hnd of strings the Chief of Neuro pulls for you
this time."
go . Nebula Awards 3r

"Try ffiтВм," Novak said. "But you'd better be ready, Elaine, because you'll have to go across country to
find a job after I'm finished with you."

"Jesus," Rousseau said thickly.

"]ane is the professional opportunity of a lifetime," Novak went oo, "and you don't have the slightest idea
of what to do with her. But I do."

It felt like a punch in the stomach, the sick-making breathless kind. lt i,sn't tnte. I wanted to say, and