"Richard Preston - The Hot Zone2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Preston Richard)

time ever since they had first started dating, in college.
Nancy and Jerry Jaax-the name is pronounced JACKS-were both
members of the Army Veterinary Corps, a tiny corps of "doggy doctors".
They take care of Army's guard dogs, as well as Army horses, Army cow,
Army sheeps, Army pigs, Army mules, Army rabbits, Army mice, and Army
monkeys. They also inspect the Army's food.
Nancy and Jerry had bought the Victorian house not long after they
had been assigned to Fort Detrick, which was nearby, within easy commuting
distance. The kitchen was small, and at the moment you could see plumbing
and wires hanging out of the walls. Not far from the kitchen, the living
room had a bay window with a collection of tropical plants and ferns in
it, and there was a cage among the plants that held an Amazon parrot named
Herky. The parrot burst into a song:
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's home from work we go!
"Mom! Mom!" he cried excitedly. His voice sounded like Jason's.
"What?" Nancy said. Then she realized it was the parrot. "Nerd
brain," she muttered.
The parrot wanted to sit on Nancy's shoulder. "Mom! Mom! Jerry!
Jaime! Jason!" the parrot shouted, calling everyone in the family. When
he didn't get any response, he whistled the "Colonel Bogey March" from The
Bridge on the River Kwai. And then: "What? What? Mom! Mom!".


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Nancy did not want to take Herky out of his cage. She worked
quickly, putting plates and silverware out on the counter. Some of the
officers at Fort Detrick had noticed a certain abrupt quality in her hand
motions and had accused her of having hands that were "too quick" to
handle delicate work in dangerous situations. Nancy had begun
martial-arts training partly because she hoped to make her gestures cool
and smooth and powerful, and also because he had felt the frustrations of
a woman officer trying to advance her career in the Army. She was five
feet four inches tall. She liked to spar with six-foot male solders, big
guys. She enjoyed knocking them around a little bit; it gave her a
certain satisfaction to be able to kick higher than the guy's head. She
used her feet more than her hands when she sparred with an opponent,
because her hands were delicate. She could break four boards with a
spinning back kick. She had reached the point where she could kill a man
with her bare feet, an idea that did not in itself give her much
satisfaction. On occasion, she had come home from her class with a broken
toe, a bloody nose, or a black eye. Jerry would just shake his head:
Nancy with another shiner.
Major Nancy Jaax did all the housework. She could not stand
housework. Scrubbing grape jelly out of rugs didn't give her a feeling of
reward, and in any case she did not have time for it. Occasionally she
would go into a paroxysm of cleaning, and she would race around the house
for an hour, throwing things into closets. She also did all the cooking
for her family. Jerry was useless in the kitchen. Another point of