"Peter Watts - The Second Coming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watts Peter)

The usual viscera glisten inside, repackaged by medics at the site Didn't know quite where to place her, though."
who had to reel in all loose ends for transport. Perhaps evidence Jasmine Fitzgerald's graduate supervisor.
was lost in the process. Perhaps the killer had arranged the entrails "I guess you've got a lot of students," Thomas suggests.
in some significant pattern, perhaps the arrangement of the GI tract "Yes." He leans forward, begins tapping at the workstation
spelled out some clue or unholy name. No matter. They took keyboard. "I've yet to meet all of them, actually. One or two in
pictures of everything. Europe I correspond with exclusively over the net. I hope to meet
Mesentary stretches like thin latex, binding loops of intestine one them this summer in BerneтАФ ah, yes. Here she is; doesn't look
to the other. A bit too tightly, in fact. There appear to beтАФ fistulas anything like the media picture."
of some sort, scattered along the lower ileum. Loops seem fused "She doesn't live in Europe, Dr. Russell."
together at several spots. What could have caused that? "No, right here. Did her field work at CERN, though. Damn hard
Nothing comes to mind. getting anything done here since the supercollider fell through. Ah."
Note it, record it, take a sample for detailed histological analysis. "What?"
Move on. The scalpel passes through the tract as easily as through "She's on leave. I remember her now. She put her thesis on hold
overcooked pasta. Stringy bile and pre-fecal lumps slump tiredly about a year and a half ago. Illness in the family, as I recall."
into a collecting dish. Something bulges behind them from the Russell stares at the monitor; something he sees there seems to sink
dorsal wall. Something shines white as bone where no bone should in, all at once.
be. Slice, resect. There. A mass of some kind covering the right "She killed her husband? She killed him?"
kidney, approximately fifteen centimetres by ten, extending down to Thomas nods.
the bladder. Quite heterogeneous, it's got some sort of lumps in it. "My God." Russell shakes his head. "She didn't seem the type.
A tumour? Is this what Stuart MacLennan's doctors were duelling She always seemed soтАФ well, so cheery."
with when they pumped him full of poison? It doesn't look like any "She still does, sometimes."
tumour the coroner's seen. "My God," he repeats. "And how can I help you?"
For one thingтАФ and this is really kind of strangeтАФ it's looking "She's suffering from some very elaborate delusions. She couches
back at him. them in a lot of technical terminology I don't understand. I mean,
for all I know she could actually be making senseтАФ no, no. Scratch
* * *
The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald Peter Watts
7




that. She can't be, but I don't have the background to really "Mmmm?" Russell blinks, momentarily distracted. "Oh, yes.
understand her, well, claims." Frank Tipler. Cosmologist from Tulane, claimed to have a testable
"What sort of claims?" mathematical proof of the existence of God. And the afterlife too, if
"For one thing, she keeps talking about bringing her husband back I recall. Raised a bit of a stir a few years back."
from the dead." "I take it you weren't impressed."
"I see." "Actually, I didn't follow it very closely. Theology's not that
"You don't seem surprised." interesting to me. I mean, if physics proves that there is or there
"Should I be? You said she was delusional." isn't a god that's fine, but that's not really the point of the exercise, is
Thomas takes a deep breath. "Dr. Russell, I've been doing some it?"
reading the past couple of days. Popular cosmology, quantum "I couldn't say. Seems to me it'd be a hell of a spin-off, though."
mechanics for beginners, that sort of thing." Russell smiles.
Russell smiles indulgently. "I suppose it's never too late to start." "I don't suppose you've got the reference?" Thomas suggests.
"I get the impression that a lot of the stuff that happens down at "Of course. Just a moment." Russell feeds a CD to the
the subatomic level almost has quasi-religious overtones. workstation and massages the keyboard. The Sun purrs. "Yes, here
Spontaneous appearance of matter, simultaneous existence in it is: The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the
different states. Almost spiritual." Resurrection of the Dead. 1994, Frank J. Tipler. I can print you out
"Yes, I suppose that's true. After a fashion." the complete citation if you want."
"Are cosmologists a religious lot, by and large?" "Please. So what was his proof?"