"Charles Stross - Antibodies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

"Let's get, oof, out of here." I looked around. Houndstooth Man was down too. I
leaned over and went through his pockets: hit paydirt, car keys. "Bingo."

"You drive," she said wearily. "My head hurts."

"Mine too." It was a black BMW and the vehicle park gates opened automatically
for it. I left the police radio under the dash turned off, though. "I didn't know you
could do thatтАФ"

"Do what? I thought you told them a jokeтАФ"

"Antibodies," she said. "Ow." Rested her face in her hands as I dragged us onto a
main road, heading out for the west end. "We must have, I don't know. I don't even
remember how funny it was: I must have blacked out. My passenger and your
passenger."

"They killed the local infection."

"Yes, that's it."

I grinned. "I think we're going to make it."

"Maybe." She stared back at me. "But Bob. Don't you realize?"

"Realize what?"

"The funniest thing. Antibodies imply prior exposure to an infection, don't they?
Your immune system learns to recognize an infection and reject it. So where were we
exposed, and whyтАФ" Abruptly she shrugged and looked away. "Never mind."

"Of course not." The question was so obviously silly that there was no point
considering it further. We drove the rest of the way to Haymarket Station in silence:
parked the car and joined the eight or ten other agents silently awaiting extraction
from the runaway singularity. Back to the only time-line that mattered; back to the
warm regard and comfort of a god who really cares.

****