"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Millennium Babies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

to play Bach to cover him.
But her favorite Brandenburg Concerto couldn't wipe Franke's voice from her mind. Studying Millennium Babies.
Brooke closed her eyes. She wondered what her mother would think of that.
Three days later, Brooke was in her office, trying to assemble her lecture for her new survey class. This one was on
the two world wars. The University of Wisconsin still believed that a teacher should stand in front of students, even
for the large lecture courses, instead of delivering canned lectures that could be downloaded. Most professors saw
surveys as too much wasted work, but she actually enjoyed the courses. She liked standing before a large room
delivering a lecture.
But now she was getting past the introductory remarks and into the areas she wasn't that familiar with. She didn't
believe in regurgitating the textbooks, so she was boning up on World War I. She had forgotten that its causes were
so complex; its results so far reaching, especially in Europe. Sometimes she just found herself reading, lost in the past.
Her office was small and narrow, with barely enough room for her desk. Because she was new, she was assigned to
Bascom Hall at the top of Bascom Hill, a building that had been around for most of the university's history. The Hall's
historic walls didn't accommodate new technology, so the university made certain she had a fancy desk with a built-in
screen. The problem with that was that when she did extensive research, as she was doing now, she had to look down.
She often downloaded information to her palmtop or worked at home. Working in her office, in the thin light provided
by the ancient fluorescents and the dirty meshed window, gave her a headache.
But she was nearly done. Tomorrow, she would take the students from the horrors of trench warfare to the first
steps toward US involvement. The bulk of the lecture, though, would focus on isolationism -- a potent force in both
world wars.
A knock on her door brought her to the twenty-first century. She rubbed the bridge of her nose impatiently. She
wasn't holding office hours. She hated it when students failed to read the signs.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Professor Cross?"
"Yes?"
"May I have a moment of your time?"
The voice was male and didn't sound terribly young, but many of her students were older.
"A moment," she said, using her desktop to unlock the door. "I'm not having office hours."
 The knob turned and a man came inside. He wasn't very tall, and he was thin -- a runner's build. It wasn't until he
turned toward her, though, that she let out a groan.
"Professor Franke."
He held up a hand. "I'm sorry to disturb you--"
"You should be," she said. "I purposely didn't answer your message."
"I figured. Please. Just give me a few moments."
She shook her head. "I'm not interested in being the subject of any study. I don't have time."
"Is it the time? Or is it the fact that the study has to do with Millennium Babies?" His look was sharp.
"Both."
"I can promise you that you'll be well compensated. And if you'll just listen to me for a moment, you might
reconsider--"
"Professor Franke," she said, "I'm not interested."
"But you're a key to the study."
"Why?" she asked. "Because of my mother's lawsuits?"
"Yes," he said.
She felt the air leave her body. She had to remind herself to breathe. The feeling was familiar. It had always been
familiar. Whenever anyone talked about Millennium Babies, she had this feeling in her stomach.
Millennium Babies. No one had expected the craze, but it had become apparent by March of 1999. Prospective
parents were timing the conception of their children as part of a race to see if their child could be the first born in 2000
-- the New Millennium, as the pundits of the day inaccurately called it. There was a more-or-less informal international
contest, but in the United States, the competition was quite heavy. There were other races in every developed country,
and in every city. And in most of those places, the winning parent got a lot of money, and a lot of products, and some,