"Alan Dean Foster - Flinx 09 - Flinx's Folly" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

"Apparently only if you try to separate them. Or if it thinks you're trying to harm
its master."

"We're trying to help him, just like we're trying to help all the others who were
brought in."

As soon as the waiting sensors detected the gurney's presence, a dozen different
automated appliances initiated a standard preliminary patient scan. They
automatically disregarded the presence of the flying snake just as they ignored
the basic but neat and clean clothing in which the patient was dressed. The
doctor stepped back from the gurney and examined her pad as one recording
after another was made and silently transferred. A duplicate set was
simultaneously being entered into the official hospital files.

The medtech looked on thoughtfully. "Want me to stay?"
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When the doctor glanced up from her softly glowing pad, it was only to eye the
patient. "Up to you. I'll be careful of the snake." Now that she knew where it
was, she could see the slight bulge occasionally moving beneath the patient's
shirt. "If I have any problems, I'll alert Security."

Nodding, the medtech turned to go. "Suit yourself. They probably need me in
Receiving now, anyway."

The doctor continued speaking without looking at him. "How many all together?"

"Twenty-two. All standing, walking, or sitting within a few meters of one
another in the same part of the Reides shopping complex. All displayed the same
symptoms: a sharp gasp, followed by a rolling back of the eyes, and down they
wentтАФout cold. Adults, children, males, femalesтАФtwo thranx, one Tolian, the
rest human. No external signs of injury, no indication of stroke or myocardial
infarction, nothing. As if they'd all simultaneously been put to sleep. That's what
the official witness reports say, anyway. They're pretty consistent throughout."

She gestured absently. "It'll take a minute or two for Processing to finish
admitting this one. First thing we'll do is correlate data between patients for
indications of other similarities, so we can try and define some parameters. I'd be
surprised if there weren't several." Her voice fell slightly. "There'd better be."

Halfway out the portal, the medtech hesitated. "Viral or bacterial infection?"

"Nothing that contradicts it, but it's much too early to say." She looked up from
her pad to meet his gaze. Concern was writ large there, and he was clearly
looking for some sort of reassurance. "At a guess, I'd say neither one. The zone