"Wayne Wightman - The Attack Of The Ignoroids" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wightman Wayne)

"Well," she said, "given my experience in the federal sector, your paranoia may
not be unwise. However, with his knowing you and his implied threat to your
money, I thought I should rent it to him for a couple of months. And this
disease thing is something he shouldn't have known about." Her voice turned dark
and low. "It's very ominous, Derrik."

For the second time in a single minute, my blood ran cold. "What disease?"

She patted my shoulder sympathetically. "STS, dear. Neither one of us has it,
but as another in the long series of sexually transmitted diseases that are
turning up, it's ominously fascinating. The best guess is that it causes
microscopic lesions in the prefrontal cortex and perhaps a subtle but widespread
deterioration of the limbic system. Probably a virus. It --"

"I have it, don't I. This is why you gave me this drink and why you're telling
me this complicated story, to confuse me -- so I'll think I'm okay till I wake
up in the morning and it all sinks in. Go ahead and say it. I get a little money
and two months later, I'm going to die."

"No, dear."

She wrapped her nurse-realtor's hands around my face, turned me to face her, and
gave me a kiss that rearranged my priorities...lips and the touch of her tongue
across my teeth...it felt like god had spoken to me.

"I'd never kiss someone who had a transmissible disease, Mr. Ramsden."

"I've been celibate for a year and a half," I said truthfully. "By choice," I
lied.

"Yummy," she said. Then she shifted gears. "The Atlanta Centers for Disease
Control already have two people here and others across the state --very quietly,
of course -- and they're officially calling it STPL. Sexually transmitted
pre-frontal lesions. But unofficially they're calling it STS sexually
transmitted stupidity, and it's no joke. It's one of those very mean viruses
that evidently popped up out of nowhere, and the biggest problem they're going
to have, when they have to announce it to the public, is to convince them that
it's real After all, stupid people are the hardest ones to convince that they're
stupid."

"STS?"

Her hair swirled when she nodded.

"How stupid does it make a person?"

"Some of the teachers at school are convinced that the kids have a conspiracy
going where one by one they pretend to forget how to read anything over about
fourth grade level."