"Philip Jose Farmer - Biological Revolt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

through the air to be breathed or otherwise absorbed by whatever living thing hap-pened to be near.

Ogtate himself was immune to the reaction his presence induced in others. Though burdened by the giant
molecules, his sympathetic nervous system and adrenal glands, which were particularly affected in others,
were quite indifferent to the asps. They were injected into his blood along with an antibody. The antibody
depended upon the closed field of the adren-als for reactivation. Although it could not, unfor-tunately, kill
the asps, it kept them from stimulating the adrenals. It did not, however, deaden these organs to other
vital stimuli.

Ogtate breathed and sweated as a man must. The invisible miasma put out long fingers through the air
and plunged then into the lungs and skin of any living creature that came near. In a short time the fingers
felt the blood. They wrapped themselves around the medulla, the inner portion of the adrenals, and they
squeezed.

The effects were immediate. Adrenalin poured out, activating the sympathetic nervous system, at-tached
closely to the glands. The person thus" bitten"felt at once the hardbeating heart, the shallow and jerky
breaths, cold sweat and rising body tempera-ture, shaking of body and paling of skin, standing-up of
hair, halting of digestion, loosening of muscles, dilation of pupils.

Above all he felt suspension of reason.

Added together, the symptoms characterized one dominant emotion.

Fear.

There was but one thought body and mind had: Get away fast.

Actually, there was no chance for permanent damage to those who were affected, as long as they went
away before their systems were overstimulated. The asps attacked only briefly before being excreted. To
get a hard grip upon the cells, they had to be suspended in a nourishing fluid and injected into the blood.
The nutrient gave them strength to hook into the host's electromagnetic field.

Although the Asp's bite was at times strong, at others weak, according to the rhythm of their
repro-duction, he always radiated enough that he could nev-er be approached by unvaccinated people.

If he were a rabbit, he could safely have hopped through a den of hungry lions.

But he was a man who would have welcomed even the company of a lion.



3



The visor in the front room of the Ogtate house bonged. Barbara walked into the front room and
pressed a button. The screen sprang from blankness into full life color. Seemingly, a man stood before
her.

"Mrs. Ogtate, I am General Yewliss of the Terran Psychological Corps." Thetones, like the man, were