"Paul Preuss - Venus Prime 1 - Breaking Strain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Preuss Paul)

He was on the link a long time with one aide after another, finally wringing a promise from the last of
them that the director would call him in the morning. These obstinate encounters fanned the rebellious
spark, and the doctor was deeply angry when the last connection was cut.

His patient had asked to see her fileтАУthe file of which she had been the subject until a year before her
arrival at the hospital. He had meant to wait for clearance, but why bother? Laird and the rest of them
would be incredulous, but there was no way she could use, or abuse, what she would see: she would
forget it almost instantly.

That, after all, was the point of this whole shameful exercise.

He knocked on the door of her upstairs room. She opened it, still wearing the boots and shirt and
trousers she had put on for her walk. тАЬYes?тАЭ

тАЬYou asked to see your file.тАЭ



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 ARTHUR C. CLARKE'S VENUS PRIME: VOLUME I

She studied him. тАЬDid my father send you?тАЭ

тАЬNo. One of the M.I. staff.тАЭ

тАЬIтАЩm not allowed to see my file. None of us are.тАЭ

тАЬAn . . . exception has been made in your case. But itтАЩs at your discretion. Only if youтАЩre interested.тАЭ

Wordlessly, she followed him down the echoing corridor, down flights of creaking stairs.

The basement room was bright and warm, thickly carpeted, quite unlike the drafty halls and wards of the
old sanatorium above. The doctor showed her to a carrel. тАЬIтАЩve entered the appropriate code already. IтАЩll
be right here if you have any questions.тАЭ He sat across the narrow aisle, two carrels down, with his back
turned to her. He wanted her to feel that she had some privacy, but not to forget that he was present.

She studied the flatscreen on the desk. Then her fingers expertly stroked the hemispheres of the manual
input. Alphanumerics appeared on the screen: тАЬWARNING: unauthorized access to this file is
punishable by fine and/or imprisonment under the National Security Act.тАЭ After a few seconds a stylized
logo appeared, the image of a fox. That image disappeared, to be replaced by more words and numbers.
тАЬCase L. N. 30851005, Specified Aptitude Resource Training and Assessment project. Access by other
than authorized Multiple Intelligence personnel is strictly forbidden.тАЭ

She stroked the input again.

Across the aisle the doctor nervously smoked a cigaretteтАУancient and hideous viceтАУwhile he waited,
seeing what she saw on the screen in front of him. The procedures and evaluations would be familiar to
her, embedded in long-term memory, engrained there, because so much of what she had learned was not
mere information, but was process, performance. . . .