"Conditionally Human" - читать интересную книгу автора (Miller Walter M)

"What'll I say?"
"The `baby' will recover. She can take it home late this afternoon if she gets some rest first."
"What're you going to do?Чabout the substitute."
"Give it a shot to put it to sleep, give her some codeine to feed it."
"Why?"
"So it'll be too groggy for a few days to even notice her, so it'll get addicted and attached to her because she gives it the coedine."
"The serial number?"
"I'll put the tattooed foot in a cast. V-18 paralysisЧyou know."
"Smart," she muttered, but there was no approval in her voice.
When she had changed clothes in the anteroom, she unlocked the door to the office, but paused before passing on into the reception room. The door was ajar, and she gazed through the crack at the woman who sat on the sofa.
Sarah Glubbes was gray and gaunt and rigid as stone. She sat with her hands clenched in her lap, her wide empty eyesЧdull blue spots on yellowed marble orbsЧstaring ceilingward while the colorless lips of a knife-slash mouth moved tautly in earnest prayer. The nurse's throat felt tight. She rubbed it for a moment. After all, the thing was only an animal.
She straightened her shoulders, put on a cheerful smile, and marched on into the reception room. The yellowed orbs snapped demandingly toward her.
"Everything's all right, Mrs. Glubbes," she began.

"Finished," Norris grunted at three o'clock that afternoon.
"Thirty-six K-99s," murmured the Anthropos file-clerk, gazing over Norris's shoulder at the clip-board with the list of doubtful neuts and the dealers to whom they had been sent. "Lots of owners may be hard to locate."
"Yeah. Thanks, Andy, and you too, Mabel."
The girl smiled and handed him a slip of paper. "Here's a list of owners for thirteen of them. I called the two local shops for you. Most of them live here close."
He glanced at the names, felt tension gathering in his stomach. It wasn't going to be easy. What could he say to them?
Howdy, Ma'am, excuse me, but I've come to take your little boy away to jail ... Oh, yes ma'am, he'll have a place to stayЧin a little steel cage with a forkful of straw, and he'll get vitaminized mush every day. What's that? His sleepy-time stories and his pink honey-crumbles? Sorry, ma'am, your little boy is only a mutated chimpanzee, you know, and not really human at all.
"That'll go over great," he grumbled, staring absently at the window.
"Beg pardon, sir?" answered the clerk.
"Nothing, Andy, nothing." He thanked them again and strode out into the late afternoon sunlight. Still a couple of hours working time left, and plenty of things to do. Checking with the other retail dealers would be the least unpleasant task, but there was no use saving the worst until last. He glanced at the list Mabel had given him, checked it for the nearest address, then squared his shoulders and headed for the kennel truck.
Anne met him at the door when he came home at six. He stood on the porch for a moment, smiling at her weakly. The smile was not returned.
"Doctor Georges' boy came," she told him. "He signed for theЧ"
She stopped to stare at him, then opened the screen, reached up quickly to brush light fingertips over his cheek.
"Terry! Those welts! What happenedЧget scratched by a cat-Q?"
"No, by a human-F," he grumbled, and stepped past her into the hall; Anne followed, eyeing him curiously while he reached for the phone and dialed.
"Who're you calling?" she asked.
"Society's Watchdog," he answered as the receiver buzzed in his ear.
"Your eye, TerryЧit's all puffy. Will it turn black?"
"Maybe."
"Did the human-F do that too?"
"Uh-uh. Human-MЧname of Pete Klusky ...
The phone croaked at him suddenly. "This is the record-voice of Sheriff Yates. I'll be out from five to seven. If it's urgent, call your constable."
He hung up briefly, then irritably dialed the locator service. "Mnemonic register, trail calls, and official locations," grated a mechanical voice. "Your business, please."
"This is T. Norris, Sherman-9-4566-78B, Official rating B, Priority B, code XT-88-U-Bio. Get Sheriff Yates for me." "Nature of the call?"
"Offish biz."
"I shall record the call."
He waited. The robot found Yates on the first probability-trial attemptЧin the local pool-hall.
"I'm getting to hate that infernal gadget," Yates snapped. "Acts like it's got me psyched. Whattaya want, Norris?"
"Cooperation. I'm mailing you three letters charging three Wylo citizens with resisting a federal officialЧnamely meЧand charging one of them with assault. I tried to pick up their neutroids for a pound inspection, andЧ"
Yates bellowed lusty laughter in his ear.
"Not funny," he growled. "I've got to get those neutroids. It's connected with the Delmont case."
Yates stopped laughing. "Oh? Well . . . I'll take care of it."
"Rush order, Sheriff. Can you get the warrants tonight and pick up the animals in the morning?"
"Easy on those warrants, boy. Judge Charleman can't be bothered just any time. I can get the newts to you by noon, I guess, provided we don't have to get a helicopter posse to chase down the mothers."
"Well, okayЧbut listenЧI want the charges dropped if they cooperate with you. And don't shake the warrants at them unless you have to. Just get those newts, that's all I want."
"Okay, boy. Give me the dope."
Norris read him the names and addresses of the three unwilling owners, and a precise account of what happened in each case. As soon as he hung up, Anne muttered "Sit still," perched on his knees, and began stroking chilly ointment across his burning cheek. He watched her cool eyes flicker from his cheek to his own eyes and down again. She was no longer angry, but only gloomy and withdrawn from him. He touched her arm. She seemed not to notice it.