"Spider Robinson - Telempath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

compartmentalized life, and his wild talent for biochemistry had the thickest walls: only within them was he capable
of logic or true intuition. He had spent a disastrous adolescent year in a seminary, enlisted as a тАЬstorm trooper of
Mary,тАЭ and had come out of it apostate but still saddled with a relentless need to Serve A CauseтАФand it chanced that
the cry in 1982 was, once again, тАЬRevolution Now!тАЭ
He left the cloistered halls of Columbia in July of that year, and applied to the smaller branchтАФthe so-called
тАЬAction-FactionтАЭтАФof the New Weathermen for a position as assassin. Fortunately he was taken for crazy and thrown
out. The African Liberation Front was somewhat less discerningтАФthey broke his leg in three places. In the
Emergency Room of Jacobi Hospital, Carlson came to the conclusion that the trouble with Serving A Cause was that
it involved associating with unperceptive and dangerously unpredictable people. What he needed was a One-Man
Cause.
And then, at the age of thirty-two, his emotions noticed his intellect for the first time.
When the two parts of him came together, they achieved critical massтАФand that was a sad day for the world. I
myself bear part of the blame for that coming togetherтАФunwittingly I provided one of the final sparks, put forward
the idea which sent Carlson on the most dangerous intuitive leap of his life. My own feelings of guilt for this will
plague me to my dying dayтАФand yet it might have been anyone. Or no one.

Fresh from a three-year stint doing biowar research for the Defense Department, I was a very minor colleague of
CarlsonтАЩs, but quickly found myself becoming a close friend. Frankly I was flattered that a man of his stature would
speak to me, and I suspect Carlson was overjoyed to find a black man who would treat him as an equal.
But for reasons which are very difficult to explain to anyone who did not live through that periodтАФand which
need no explanation for those who didтАФI was reluctant to discuss the A.L.F. with a honky, however тАЬenlightened.тАЭ
And so when I went to visit Carlson in Jacobi Hospital and the conversation turned to the self-defeating nature of
uncontrollable rage, I attempted to distract the patient with a hasty change of subject.
тАЬThe MovementтАЩs turning rancid, Jake,тАЭ Carlson had just muttered, and an excellent digression occurred to me.
тАЬWendell,тАЭ I said heedlessly, тАЬdo you realize that you personally are in a position to make this a better world?тАЭ
His eyes lit up. тАЬHowтАЩs that?тАЭ
тАЬYou are probably the worldтАЩs greatest authority on olfactometry and the human olfactory apparatusтАФamong
other thingsтАФright?тАЭ
тАЬAs far as there is one, I suppose so. What of it?тАЭ He shifted uneasily within his traction gear: wearing his radical
persona, he was made uncomfortable by reference to his scientist-mode. He felt it had little to do with the Realities
of LifeтАФlike nightsticks and grand juries.
тАЬHas it ever occurred to you,тАЭ I persisted to my everlasting regret, тАЬthat nearly all the undesirable by-products of
twentieth-century livingтАФTechnological ManтАЩs most unlovable aspectsтАФquite literally stink? The whole worldтАЩs
going rancid, Wendell, not just the Movement: automobiles, factory pollution, crowded citiesтАФWendell, why
couldnтАЩt you develop a selective suppressant for the sense of smellтАФcontrolled anosmia? Oh, I know a snort of
formaldehyde will do the trick, and having your adenoids removed sometimes works. But a man oughtnтАЩt to have to
give up the smell of frying bacon just to survive in New York. And you know weтАЩre reaching that passтАФin the past
few years it hasnтАЩt been necessary to leave the city and then return to be aware of how evil it smells. The natural
suppressor-mechanism in the brainтАФwhatever it isтАФhas gone about as far as it can go. Why donтАЩt you devise a
small-spectrum filter to aid it? It would be welcomed by sanitation workers, engineersтАФwhy, it would be a godsend
to the man on the street!тАЭ
Carlson was mildly interested. Such an anosmic filter would be both a mordant political statement and a genuine
boon to mankind. He had been vaguely pleased by the success of his cold cure, and I believe he sincerely wished to
make the world a happier placeтАФhowever perverted his methods tended to be. We discussed the idea at some length,
and I left.
Had Carlson not been bored silly in the hospital, he would never have rented a television set. It was extremely
unfortunate that the тАЬLate ShowтАЭ (ed. note: a television show of the period) that evening featured the film version of
Alistair MacLeanтАЩs The Satan Bug. Watching this absurd production, Carlson was intellectually repelled by the
notion that a virus could be isolated so hellishly virulent that тАЬa teaspoon of it would sweep the earth of life in a few
days.тАЭ