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

But all Jesse could see, suddenly, was the row of plastic ducks in his parents'
Florida yard, lined up as precisely as headstones, garish hideous yellow as they
marched undeviatingly wherever it was they were going.


###


"No," Mike Cassidy said. "I didn't send him."
They stood in the hospital parking lot. Snow blew from the east. Cassidy
wrapped both arms around himself and rocked back and forth. "He didn't come
from us."
"He said he did!"
"I know. But he didn't. His group must have heard we were helping illegally,
gotten your name from somebodyтАФ"
"But why?" Jesse shouted. "Why frame me? Why kill a child just to frame me?
I'm nothing!"
Cassidy's face spasmed. Jesse saw that his horror at Jesse's position was real,
his sympathy genuine, and both useless. There was nothing Cassidy could do.
"I don't know," Cassidy whispered. And then, "Are you going to name me at
your malpractice trial?"
Jesse turned away without answering, into the wind.
 ###


Chief of Surgery Jonathan Eberhart called him into his office just before Jesse
started his rotation. Before, not after. That was enough to tell him everything. He
was getting very good at discovering the whole from a single clue.
"Sit down, Doctor," Eberhart said. His voice, normally austere, held unwilling
compassion. Jesse heard it, and forced himself not to shudder.
"I'll stand."
"This is very difficult," Eberhart said, "but I think you already see our position.
It's not one any of us would have chosen, but it's what we have. This hospital
operates at a staggering deficit. Most patients cannot begin to cover the costs of
modern technological health care. State and federal governments are both strapped
with enormous debt. Without insurance companies and the private philanthropical
support of a few rich families, we would not be able to open our doors to anyone at
all. If we lose our insurance rating weтАФ"
"I'm out on my ass," Jesse said. "Right?"
Eberhart looked out the window. It was snowing. Once Jesse, driving through
Oceanview Security Enclave to pick up a date, had seen Eberhart building a
snowman with two small children, probably his grandchildren. Even rolling lopsided
globes of cold, Eberhart had had dignity.
"Yes, Doctor. I'm sorry. As I understand it, the facts of your case are not in
legal dispute. Your residency here is terminated."
"Thank you," Jesse said, an odd formality suddenly replacing his crudeness.
"For everything."
Eberhart neither answered nor turned around. His shoulders, framed in the grey
window, slumped forward. He might, Jesse thought, have had a sudden advanced
case of osteoporosis. For which, of course, he would be fully insured.