"Gordon R. Dickson - The Last Master" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

But even as a child Ett had already learned that adapting was the one thing that he could not do. So he
had slipped aside from the confrontation with the world that his attitude would have demanded. He had
left Wally to try to struggle with that world alone; and Wally had so struggled until it had finally destroyed
him. His final error had been falling in love with someone who had driven him to face a challenge that he
had not survived. It was the crowning touch, Ett thought, in a life that just would not seem to go right for
Wally—that Maea should leave him. And so, in the end, he had taken the RIV treatment, and then killed
himself.

Moreover, Ett had discovered upon arrival inHawaii , the world—life—kept right on shafting Wally after
his death. For after he had killed himself successfully, he’d been discovered and cut down, gotten into
cryogenic stasis within minutes.

“Well, then,” Ett’s relief had been enormous, “he can be revived, can’t he?”

“Theoretically,” had answered the physician he had been allowed to talk to at theCryogenicsCenter
inHilo .

“What do you mean, ‘theoretically’?” Ett stared at the other, a small, hard-looking woman with hair just
beginning to gray at the temples. The physician had looked at him, Ett thought, a little wearily.

“Mr. Ho,” she said, “you’ll have to understand something. In the case of your brother, successful
revivification is only the remotest of possibilities. The chances are large that he couldn’t be brought back
to a functioning existence even if he had the best medical team available.”

“Then we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?” said Ett.

“Please let me finish,” said the physician. “Even if he should be successfully revived, the chances appear
very strong that, rather than his mental deterioration having been halted by the death experience, it’ll have
been enhanced; so that once brought back he would show no mental capacity at all—in short, he may be
no more than a living body without a mind.”

“Sure,” said Ett. He heard the tone of his own voice, distant and unyielding. “But Wally would want to
try, I think. So how do I go about finding the best medical team available?”

The physician looked down at the desktop which lay between them, then once more up at Ett.

“That’s another matter,” she said. “I’m sorry if the way I mentioned the best medical team made it sound
as if it was possible for you to get something like that for your brother. Actually, the best team for
anything like this is a team gathered together by an outstanding specialist in cryogenic revivification. But a
specialist like that will have been booked for years in advance.“

“We’ll make an appointment,” said Ett. “Who’s the best?”

“Well… a Dr. Garranto,”said the physician. “But—”

Ett touched the minicorder button on his wrist chronometer, and aimed it at the woman before him.

“Let me get that down. What’s his full name?”

“Dr. Fernando James Garranto y Vega,” said the physician. “But I don’t seem to be explaining matters