"Nancy Kress - The Rules" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

Ahmed and wells for Argentine villages and all the rest. Just to secure your
audience and get them to trust you. ItтАЩs the deserts youтАЩre after. But why?
TheyтАЩre just a symptom.тАЭ

тАЬUsing the word тАШsymptomтАЩ admits that you see a problem,тАЭ Tartell
said.

Carmody smiled. тАЬOr an opportunity. WhatтАЩs going to happen,
Arthur?тАЭ

тАЬWrong tense, IтАЩm afraid. ItтАЩs happening already.тАЭ

****

Sister H├йl├йne-Marie needed to get away. Simply needed to. These
peopleтАФthey were everywhere! And now, added to all the rest, had come
an American couple of truly astonishing persistence, who wanted to adopt
Saya. They had arrived in a private plane this morning, they seemed to have
more money than the Holy Father, and they did not believe, or pretended to
not believe, that Sister H├йl├йne-Marie could not arrange an adoption with a
single phone call to Nairobi. To what was left of Nairobi.

She didnтАЩt put on a full desert suit. Her flowing white trouser-habit
would do for the short time she would be gone. But she did don boots and
mask. The ultraviolet indicator was very high today, as was the CO2 level,
and those nasty little betes, the sandworms, were spreading like sin.

Feeling a little sinful herself, Sister H├йl├йne-Marie ducked out the back
door of the Mission kitchen and, shielded by the outhouses and then by the
ridiculous bulk of the visitorsтАЩ planes and helicopters, walked rapidly out into
the desert. So dangerous, so vastтАФand so peaceful. Had not Our Lord
spent fruitful time praying in the desert? Not that Sister H├йl├йne-Marie could
spend forty days here, of course, because, for one thing, the sand worms
made it very dangerous to sit down.

But there was someone sitting down, in the distance.

She lifted her arm to shade her eyes. No, the figure, in full desert suit,
was not sitting down but rather was crouching. It was difficult to see more
because the sand and rock were so bright...

Too bright.

Sister H├йl├йne-Marie could hardly bear to look to the west. The desert
there was much, much brighter than to the east or south or north. To be
certain of that, she turned in a slow circle, squinting above her mask. Much
brighter.

The figure straightened and raised an arm. One of the desert rovers,
ubiquitous since this last week, rolled into view over the horizon.