"Herbert, Frank - The Eyes of Heisenberg" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

Abruptly, Svengaard sent his probes down into the sex identifiers, scanned the overlapping helices.
Female!
He straightened, checked number and tag, 'Fifteen. Durant.'
Svengaard bent to the inspection chart, read it in the gauge glow. It showed the duty nurse's notations for the eighty-first hour. He glanced at his watch: still twenty minutes before she made the eighty-second hour check.
The Durant embryo could not possibly be female, he thought Not from Potter's operation.
Someone had switched embryos,' he realized. One embryo would activate the vat's life-system responses much like another. Without microscopic examination, the change couldn't be detected.
Who?
In Svengaard's mind, the most likely candidates were the Optimen. They'd removed the Durant embryo to a safe place and left a substitute.
Why?
Bait, he thought. Bait.
Who are they trying to catch?
He straightened, mouth dry, heart pumping rapidly. A sound at the wall to his left brought him whirling around. The vat room's emergency computer panel had come to life, tapes beginning to turn, lights winking. A read-out board clattered.
But there was no operator!
Svengaard whirled to run from the room, collided with a blocky, unmoving shape. Arms and hands gripped him with unmerciful pressure and he saw beyond his captor a section of the vat room wall open with dim light there and movement. Then darkness exploded in his skull.

nine
SEATAC HOSPITAL'S new computer nurse got Max Allgood on the phone after only a short delay while Security traced him. Allgood's eyes appeared sunken. His mouth was pulled into a thin line.
'Yes?' he said. 'Oh, it's you.'
'Something important's come up,' she said. 'Svengaard's in the vat room examining the Durant embryo under microscope.'
Allgood rolled his eyes. 'Oh, for the love... Is that why you got me out of... is that why you called me?'
'But there was a noise and you said-'
'Forget it.'
'I tell you there was a commotion of some kind in that room and now Doctor Svengaard's gone. I didn't see him go.'
'He probably left by another door.'
'There is no other door.'
'Look, sweetie, I have half a hundred agents there covering that room like a blanket. A fly couldn't move in that room without our scanners picking it up.'
Then check with them to see where Svengaard's gone.'
'Oh, for-'
'Check!'
'All right!' Allgood turned to his hot line, got the duty agent. The computer nurse could hear him through her open line. 'Where's Svengaard?'
A muffled voice responded, 'Just went in and examined the Durant embryo under the microscope, then left.'
'Went out the door?'
'Just walked out.'
Allgood's face came back onto the computer nurse's screen. 'You hear that?'
'I heard, but I've been down at the end of the hall ever since he went in. He didn't come out.'
'You probably turned your back for five seconds.'
'We'll...'
'You did, didn't you?'
'I may've looked away just for a second, but-'
'So you missed him.'
'But I heard a commotion in there!'
'If there was anything wrong, my men would've reported it. Now, forget this. Svengaard's no problem. They said he'd probably do this and we could ignore it. They're never wrong about such things.'
'If you're sure.'
'I'm sure.'
'Say, why are we so interested in that embryo?'
'You don't need to know, sweetie. Get back to work and let me get some sleep.'
She broke the connection, still wondering about the noise she had heard. It sounded like something being hit.
Allgood sat staring at the blank screen after the nurse signed off. Noise? Commotion? He formed a circle with his mouth, exhaled slowly. Crazy damn' female!
Abruptly, he stood up, turned back to his bed. The doxie playmate he'd brought in for the night lay there in the rosy light of a gloom dispeller, half awake, looking at him. Her eyes under long lashes filled him with sudden rage.
'Get the hell out of here!' he roared.