"Michael Marshall Smith - To Receive Is Better" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Michael Marshall)

full of blue people that just crawled up and down the tunnels, sheets of paper with nothing written on them. Manny
said that some keepers made extra money by letting real people in at night. Sometimes the real people would just drink
beer and laugh at the spares, and sometimes they would fuck them. Nobody knows, and nobody cares. ThereтАЩs no
point teaching spares, no point giving them a life. All thatтАЩs going to happen is theyтАЩre going to get whittled down.
On the other hand, maybe they have it easier. Because once you know how things stand, it becomes very difficult
to take it. You just sit around, and wait, like all the others, but you know what youтАЩre waiting for. And you know
whoтАЩs to blame.
Like my brother Jack, for example. Jamming two fingers in a door when he was ten was only the start of it. When
he was eighteen he rolled his expensive car and smashed up the bones in his leg. ThatтАЩs another of the reasons I
donтАЩt want to be on this fucking subway: people notice when something like thatтАЩs missing. Just like they notice that
the left side of my face is raw, where they took a graft off when some woman threw scalding water at him. HeтАЩs got
most of my stomach, too. Stupid fucker ate too much spicy food, drank too much wine. DonтАЩt know what those kind
of things are like, of course: but they canтАЩt have been that nice. They canтАЩt have been nice enough. And then last
year he went to some party, got drunk, got into a fight and lost his right eye. And so, of course, I lost mine.
ItтАЩs a laugh being in a farm. ItтАЩs a real riot. People stump around, dripping fluids, clapping hands with no fingers
together and shitting into colostomy bags. I donтАЩt know what was worse: the ones who knew what was going on and
felt hate like a cancer, or those who just ricocheted slowly round the tunnels like grubs. Sometimes the tunnel people
would stay still for days, sometimes they would move around. There was no telling what theyтАЩd do, because there was
no-one inside their heads. ThatтАЩs what Manny did for us, in fact, for Sue and Jenny and me: he put people inside our
heads. Sometimes we used to sit around and talk about the real people, imagine what they were doing, what it would
be like to be them instead of us. Manny said that wasnтАЩt good for us, but we did it anyway. Even spares should be
allowed to dream.
It could have gone on like that forever, or until the real people started to get old and fall apart. The end comes
quickly then, IтАЩm told. ThereтАЩs a limit to what you can cut off. Or at least thereтАЩs supposed to be; but when youтАЩve
seen blind spares with no arms and legs wriggling in dark corners, you wonder.
But then this afternoon the phone went, and we all dutifully stood up and limped into the tunnel. I went with Sue
2, and we sat next to each other. Many used to say we loved each other, but how the fuck do I know? I feel happier
when sheтАЩs around, thatтАЩs all I know. She doesnтАЩt have any teeth and her left armтАЩs gone and theyтАЩve taken both of
her ovaries, but I like her. She makes me laugh.
Eventually Manny came in with the usual kind of heavy guy and I saw that this time Manny looked worse than
ever. He took a long time walking around, until the guy with him started shouting, and then in the end he found Jenny
2, and pointed at her.
Jenny 2 was one of MannyтАЩs favourites. Her and Sue and me, we were the ones he could talk to. The man took
Jenny out and Manny watched him go. When the door was shut he sat down and started to cry.
The real Jenny was in a hotel fire. All her skin was gone. Jenny 2 wasnтАЩt going to be coming back.
We sat with Manny, and waited, and then suddenly he stood up. He grabbed Sue by the hand and told me to
follow and he took us to his quarters and gave me the clothes IтАЩm wearing now. He gave us some money, and told us
where to go. I think somehow he knew what was going to happen. Either that, or he just couldnтАЩt take it any more.
WeтАЩd hardly got our clothes on when all hell broke loose. We hid when the men came to find Manny, and we
heard what happened.
Jenny 2 had spoken. They donтАЩt use drugs or anaesthetic, except when the shock of the operation will actually kill
the spare. Obviously. Why bother? Jenny 2 was in a terminal operation, so she was awake. When the guy stood
over her, smiling as he was about to take the first slice out of her face, she couldnтАЩt help herself, and I donтАЩt blame her.
тАЬPlease,тАЭ she said. тАЬPlease donтАЩt.тАЭ
Three words. It isnтАЩt much. It isnтАЩt so fucking much. But it was enough. She shouldnтАЩt have been able to say
anything at all.
Manny got in the way as they tried to open the tunnels and so they shot him and went in anyway. We ran then,
so I donтАЩt know what they did. I shouldnтАЩt think they killed them, because most had lots of parts left. Cut out bits of
their brain, probably, to make sure they were all tunnel people.
We ran, and we walked and we finally made the city. I said goodbye to Sue at the subway, because she was going