"Campbell, John W Jr - Who Goes There" - читать интересную книгу автора (Campbell John W Jr)

"It would do it no good," said Dr. Copper, softly as though thinking out loud, "to merely look like something it was trying to imitate; it would have to understand
its feelings, its reaction. It is unhuman; it has powers of imitation beyond any conception of man. A good actor, by training himself, can imitate another man,
another man's mannerisms, well enough to fool most people. Of course no actor could imitate so perfectly as to deceive men who had been living with the imitated
one in the complete lack of privacy of an Antarctic camp. That would take a super-human skill."


"Oh, you've got the bug too?" Norris cursed softly.
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Connant, standing alone at one end of the room, looked about him wildly, his face white. A gentle eddying of the men had crowded them slowly down toward the other
end of the room, so that he stood quite alone. "My God, will you two Jeremiahs shut up?" Connant's voice shook. "What am I? Some kind of a microscopic specimen
you're dissecting? Some unpleasant worm you're discussing in the third person?"


McReady looked up at him; his slowly twisting hands stopped for a moment. "Having a lovely time. Wish you were here. Signed: Everybody. Connant, if you think you're
having a hell of a time, just move over on the other end for a while. You've got one thing we haven't; you know what the answer is. I'll tell you this, right now
you're the most feared and respected man in Big Magnet."


"Lord, I wish you could see your eyes," Connant gasped "Stop staring, will you? What the hell are you going to do?"


"Have any suggestions, Dr. copper?" Commander Garry asked steadily. "The present situation is impossible."
"Oh, is it?" Connant snapped. "Come over here and look at that crowd. By Heaven, they look exactly like that gang of huskies around the corridor bend. Bennings,
will you stop hefting that damned ice-ax?"


The coppery blade rang on the floor as the aviation mechanic nervously dropped it. He bent over and picked it up instantly, hefting it slowly, turning it in his
hands, his brown eyes moving jerkily about the room.


Copper sat down on the bunk beside Blair. The wood creaked noisily in the room. Far down a corridor, a dog yelped in pain, and the dog-drivers' tense voices
floated softly back. "Microscopic examination," said the doctor thoughtfully, "would be useless, as Blair pointed out. Considerable time has passed. However,
serum tests would be definitive."


"Serum tests? What do you mean exactly?" Commander Garry asked.
"If I had a rabbit that had been injected with human blood -a poison to the rabbits, of course, as is the blood of any animal save that of another rabbit -and
the injections continued in increasing doses for some time, the rabbit would be human-immune. If a small quantity of its blood were drawn off, allowed to
separate in a test-tube, and to the clear serum, a bit of human blood were added, there would be a visible reaction, proving the blood was human. If cow, or dog
blood were added -or any protein material other than that one thing, human blood -no reaction would take place. That would prove definitely."


"Can you suggest where I might catch a rabbit for you, Doc?" Norris asked. "That is, nearer than Australia; we don't want to waste time going that far."
"I know there aren't any rabbits in Antarctica," Copper nodded, "but that is simply the usual animal. Any animal except man will do. A dog for instance. But it
will take several days, and due to the greater size of the animal, considerable blood. Two of us will have to contribute."