"Vernor Vinge - Rainbows End" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

Alice's eyes flickered this way and that as she nodded at an introduction, laughed at some witty
comment. She walked a short distance with a couple of self-important types, chattering all the while in
Bahasa and Mandarin and Goodenuf English, of which only the English was intelligible to Bob. Then she
was alone again. She leaned a little toward him, and gave him a big grin. "Well that sounds like a good
thing!" she said. "Your father has been beyond all rational discourse for how many years? And now
suddenly he's engaged enough to have a good time. You should be thrilled. From here, he'll only get
better. You'll have your father back!"

"... Yes." Yesterday, he'd said goodbye to the last of the in-home caregivers. Dad should improve very
fast now. The only reason he was still in a wheelchair was that the docs wanted to make sure his bone
regeneration was complete before they let him loose in the neighborhood.

She saw the expression on his face, and cocked her head to one side. "Are you chicken?"

He glanced at his father. The Paraguay operation was just a few weeks away. A covert op at the edge of
the world. The prospect was coming to seem almost attractive. "Maybe."

"Then let our Little General do her thing and don't worry." She turned and waved at someone beyond his
vision. "Oops." Her image flickered out and there was only silent messaging тАФ

Alice тАФ > Bob: Gotta go. I'm already covering for Secretary Martinez, and local custom does not
approve of timesharing.

Bob sat for a moment in the quiet living room. Miri was upstairs, studying. Outside, the late afternoon slid
into evening. A peaceful time. Back when he was a kid, this was when Dad would bring out the poetry
books, and Dad and Mom and little Bobby would have a readalong. Actually, Bob felt a happy nostalgia
for those evenings. He looked back at his father. "Dad?" No answer. Bob leaned forward and tried to
shout diffidently. "Dad? Is there enough light for you? I can make it lots brighter."
The old man shook his head distractedly. Maybe he even understood the question, but he gave no other
indication. He just sat there, slumped to the side. His right hand rubbed again and again at the wrist of his
left. And yet, this was a big improvement. Robert Gu, Sr., had been down to eighty pounds, a barely
living vegetable, when UCSF Medical School took him on for their new treatment. It turned out the
UCSF Alzheimer's cure worked where the years of conventional treatment had failed.

Bob did a few errands on base, checked the plans for the upcoming Paraguay operation... and then sat
back and just watched his father for a few minutes.

I didn't always hate you.

As a child, he had never hated his old man. Maybe that wasn't surprising. A kid has very little to compare
to. Robert was strict and demanding, on that little Bobby had been very clear. For even though Robert
Senior had often and loudly blamed himself for being such an easygoing parent, sometimes that seemed
to contradict what Bob saw at his friends' homes. But it had never seemed mistreatment to Bob.

Even when Mom left Dad, even that hadn't turned Bob against the old man. Lena Gu had taken years of
subtle abuse and she couldn't take any more, but little Bobby had been oblivious of it all. It wasn't till
later, talking to Aunt Cara, that he realized how much worse Robert treated others than he had ever
treated Bob.