"Kate Wilhelm - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

тАЬNothing. He lost his grant, his students were sent packing.тАЭ David grinned at his uncle
suddenly. тАЬLook, up on the hill, you can see a dogwood ready to burst open. Some of the blooms are
already showing.тАЭ


Chapter 3


David was bone tired, every muscle seemed to ache at once, and his head was throbbing. For
nine days he had been on the go, to the coast, to Harvard, to Washington, and now he wanted
nothing more than to sleep, even if the world ground to a stop while he was unaware. He had taken
a train from Washington to Richmond, and there, unable to rent a car, or buy gasoline if a car had
been available, he had stolen a bicycle and pedaled the rest of the way. He never realized his
legs could ache so much.
тАЬYouтАЩre sure that bunch in Washington wonтАЩt be able to get a hearing?тАЭ Grandfather Sumner
asked.
тАЬNo one wants to hear the Jeremiahs,тАЭ David said. Selnick had been one of the group, and he
had talked to David briefly. The government had to admit the seriousness of the coming
catastrophe, had to take strict measures to avert it, or at least alleviate it, but instead, the
government chose to paint glowing pictures of the coming upturn that would be apparent by fall.
During the next six months those with sense and money would buy everything they could to see them
through, because after that period of grace there would be nothing to buy.
тАЬSelnick says we should offer to buy his equipment. The school will jump at the chance to
unload it right now. Cheap.тАЭ David laughed. тАЬCheap. A quarter of a million possibly.тАЭ
тАЬMake the offer,тАЭ Grandfather Sumner said brusquely. And Walt nodded thoughtfully.
David stood up shakily and shook his head. He waved at them and went off to his bed.
People still went to work. The factories were still producing, not as much, and none of the
nonessentials, but they were converting to coal as fast as possible. He thought about the darkened
cities, the fleets of trucks rusting, the corn and wheat rotting in the fields. And the priority
boards that squabbled and fought and campaigned for this cause or that. It was a long time before
his twitching muscles relaxed enough for him to lie quietly, and a longer time before he could
relax his mind enough to sleep.
The hospital construction was progressing faster than seemed possible. There were two shifts
at work; again a case of damn-the-cost. Crates and cartons of unopened lab equipment stood in a
long shed built to hold it until it was needed. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory
trying to replicate FrerrerтАЩs and SempleтАЩs tests. And in early July, Harry Vlasic arrived at the
farm. He was short, fat, near-sighted, and short-tempered. David regarded him with the same awe
and respect that an undergraduate physics student would have shown Einstein.
тАЬAll right,тАЭ Vlasic said. тАЬThe corn crop has failed, as predicted. Monoculture! Bah! TheyтАЩll
save sixty percent of the wheat, no more than that. This winter, hah, just wait until winter! Now
where is the cave?тАЭ
They took him to the cave entrance, which was just over a hundred yards from the hospital.
Inside the cave they used lanterns. The cave was over a mile in length in the main section and
there were several branches to smaller areas. Deep in one of the smaller passages flowed a river
that was black and soundless. Spring water, good water. Vlasic nodded again and again. When they
finished the cave tour he was still nodding. тАЬItтАЩs good,тАЭ he said. тАЬItтАЩll work. The laboratories
go in there, underground passage from the hospital, safe from contamination. Good.тАЭ
They worked sixteen hours a day that summer and into the fall. In October the first wave of
flu swept the country, worse than the outbreak of 1917-1918. In November a new illness appeared,
and here and there it was whispered that it was plague, but the government Bureau of Information