"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Crunchers, Inc." - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

treatments couldnтАЩt find out; insurance companies couldnтАЩt figure out who deserved
the high-end coverage; extended-living facilities and comfortable retirement centers
couldnтАЩt evaluate applicationsтАФat least, not for the thirty thousand or so files
normally processed each week on floor seventeen.

If this went on too long, seventeen would get docked (and black-marked).
More than a month, and everyone on seventeen would be fired for lack of
productivityтАФand would then try to find a new job.

Edith shuddered. Job loss wasnтАЩt a black mark on the permanent files, but job
loss resulting in demotion was, and if she got fired along with everyone else on
seventeen because they couldnтАЩt find an AE, then she would never find a mid-level
management position again. SheтАЩd be an тАЬaverageтАЭ worker, and more than black
marks, one thing you didnтАЩt want in your permanent record was the word тАЬaverage.тАЭ

So she went above and beyond. She stayed late, reviewing applicantsтАЩ life
histories, breaking an unwritten rule and investigating their permanent files in search
of sentimentality. (Technically personnel was supposed to look through permanent
files for mundane things, like genetic predisposition to various diseases, criminal
records, criminal charges, and personal complaints. To look for something more
specific, like family history or a tendency toward weeping at sad movies, was against
some Federal law that personnel could cite chapter and verse [and did whenever
Edith asked them to do it], but Edith didnтАЩt care. She wanted the best AE possible,
and that meant taking extraordinary measures.)

She also had Conrad beef up security to the roomтАФagain. She looked in the
budget to see if there was money to secure the AEтАЩs place of residence as well.
EISH had become quite sophisticated; its anti-formula programs slowly bombarded
the AEтАЩs subconscious with sentimental stories of the ways that the smallest of
encounters could trigger life-changing events.

Even EISH didnтАЩt argue that everyone should be saved. The serial killer, the
repeat child molesterтАФtheir bad deeds outweighed any potential for good. Despite
the word тАЬeveryoneтАЭ in EISHтАЩs title, they were really arguing for the ordinary person,
the average person, the person who, when they died, wouldnтАЩt have enough
accompaniments to fill a fifteen-second obituary spot on the Mourning Network.

Edith always thought (privately) that the founders of EISH were trying to
protect themselves and their families. She always argued (publicly) that if EISH
wanted to help the entire well-behaved world get extended-life treatments or the best
medical care, then EISH shouldnтАЩt concentrate on changing the formulas that
companies like Crunchers used.

EISH should get more and more people to live on the high end of the
CrunchersтАЩ scale. EISH should encourage them to give more to charity or donate
genetic material or house foster children. If more people wanted the benefits of an
exemplary life, they should live one.

Even though it was hard. Edith was falling short, but at least she tried. She
didnтАЩt go through day-to-day sleepwalking. She actually thought about each action,