"Jeffrey D. Kooistra - Dykstra's War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kooistra Jeffrey D)

- Chapter 1




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file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Nieuwe%20map/KOOISTRA...EFFREY%20-%20DYKSTRA'S%20WAR/0671319582___1.htm (1 of 32)29-12-2006 18:58:26
 - Chapter 1




Part 1 Young Again
I

Genius
"Well, Professor Dykstra, I recommend that you try using a cane."

"A cane?" the old man said. "The dawn of the twenty-second century, and the best that medicine can
offer me is a cane?" He said it not with bitterness, or distress, but only ironic amusement.

"I'm sorry, Professor, but you are one hundred twenty-six years old. There's a limit to what we can do
with muscle and nerve past the century mark," the doctor said.

"That's quite all right. I expected as much. Now, where might one acquire a cane?" Dykstra stood,
steadying himself against the chair until sure of his balance.

"I had one brought up for you." The doctor produced a shiny, titanium walking stick, with a soft but firm
handle and a cushion on the tip. "The stud here on the side adjusts the length." He handed it over.

James Christian Dykstra, the archetypal genius of the age, looked over the walking stick, weighed it in
his hand, thrust it firmly into the floor, and said, "Serviceable, but short on character, I think, Doctor."

"You don't like it? But it's the best on the market."

"I have something else in mind," Dykstra said. "But I'll use this one for the time being."

And how much time will that be? he thought as he left the university medical center. He was ancient,
well beyond the average age of dying in even this era of extended life, with all his roads traveled and
behind him, save one that went on but a short distance ahead.

He decided to walk through the quad rather than summon his car to come get him. It was a beautiful day,
after all, cane or no cane.

He saw a student at a picnic table, face buried in a textbook of familiar red, stylus in hand, its tip resting