"Nancy Kress - The Mountain to Mohammed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

"God, Mike, you could be dismissed from the hospital! The regulations forbid
residents from exposing the hospital to the threat of an uninsured malpractice suit.
There's no money."
Mike had smiled and twirled his glass between fingers as long as a pianist's.
"Doctors are free to treat whomever they wish, at their own risk, even uninsurables.
Carter v. Sunderland."
"Not while a hospital is paying their malpractice insurance as residents, if the
hospital exercises its right to so forbid. Janisson v. Lechchevko."
Mike laughed easily. "Then forget it, both of you. It's just conversation."
Anne said, "But do you personally riskтАФ"
"It's not right," Jesse cut inтАФcouldn't she see that Mike wouldn't want to
incriminate himself on a thing like this?тАФ"that so much of the population can't get
insurance. Every year they add more genescan pre-tendency barriers, and the poor
slobs haven't even got the diseases yet!"
His voice had risen. Anne glanced nervously around the bar. Her profile was
lovely, a serene curving line that reminded Jesse of those Korean screens in the
expensive shops on Commonwealth Avenue. And she had lovely legs, lovely
breasts, lovely everything. Maybe, he'd thought, now that they were neighbors in the
Morningside Enclave...
"Another round," Mike had answered.
Unlike the father of the burned baby, who never had answered Jesse at all. To
cover his slight embarrassmentтАФthe mother had been so effusiveтАФJesse gazed
around the cramped apartment. On the wall were photographs in cheap plastic
frames of people with masses of black hair, all lying in bed. Jesse had read about
this: It was a sort of mute, powerless protest. The subjects had all been
photographed on their death beds. One of them was a beautiful girl, her eyes closed
and her hand flung lightly over her head, as if asleep. The Hispanic followed Jesse's
gaze and lowered his eyes.
"Nice," Jesse said. "Good photos. I didn't know you people were so good
with a camera."
Still nothing.
Later, it occurred to Jesse that maybe the guy hadn't understood English.


###


The subway stopped with a long screech of equipment too old, too poorly
maintained. There was no money. Boston, like the rest of the country, was broke.
For a second Jesse thought the brakes weren't going to catch at all and his heart
skipped, but Kenny showed no emotion and so Jesse tried not to, either. The car
finally stopped. Kenny rose and Jesse followed him.
They were somewhere in Dorchester. Three men walked quickly towards them
and Jesse's right hand crept towards his pocket. "This him?" one said to Kenny.
"Yeah," Kenny said. "Dr. Randall," and Jesse relaxed.
It made sense, really. Two men walking through this neighborhood probably
wasn't a good idea. Five was better. Mike's organization must know what it was
doing.
The men walked quickly. The neighborhood was better than Jesse had
imagined: small row houses, every third or fourth one with a bit of frozen lawn in the