"james_alan_gardner_-_three_hearings_on_the_existence_of_snakes_in_the_human_bloodstream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

"Me?"
"You're the top expert in your field," McCarthy shrugged. "If anybody
can get rid of the snakes once and for all, it's you."
"Senator," Julia said, "have you no shame? Have you no shame at all?
You want to endanger lives over this... triviality? A meaningless difference
you can only detect with a microscope--"
"Which means they can walk among us, doctor! Papists can walk among us.
Them with their special blood, their snakes, their damned inbreeding --
they're the ones who care about what you call a triviality! They're the ones
who flaunt it in our faces. They say they're God's Chosen. With God's Mark
of Blessing. Well, I intend to erase that mark, with or without your help."
"Without," Julia told him. "Definitely without."
McCarthy's gaze was on her. He did not look like a man who had just
received an absolute no. With an expression far too smug, he said, "Let me
tell you a secret, doctor. From our agents in the enemy camp. Even as we
speak, the Papists are planning to contaminate our water supply with their
damned SA enzyme. Poison us or make us like them... one way or the other. We
need your drug to fight that pollution; to remove the enzyme from our blood
before it can destroy us! What about that, Dr. Grant? Will your precious
medical ethic? let you work on a treatment to keep us safe from their damned
Papist toxins?"
Julia grimaced. "You know nothing about the human metabolism. People
couldn't 'catch' the SA factor from drinking water; the enzyme would just
break down in your stomach acid. I suppose it might be possible to produce a
methylated version that would eventually work its way into the
bloodstream..." She stopped herself. "Anyway, I can't believe the Papists
would be so insane as to--"
"Right now," McCarthy interrupted, "sitting in a committee room of some
Papist hideaway, there are a group of men who are just as crazy as we are.
Believe that, doctor. Whatever we are willing to do to them, they are
willing to do to us; the only question is, who'll do it first." McCarthy
settled back and cradled his hands on his stomach. "Snakes all 'round, Dr.
Grant. You can make a difference in who gets bitten."
It was, perhaps, the only true flung McCarthy had said since the
hearing had begun. Julia tried to doubt it, but couldn't. SA-positive or
negative, you could still be a ruthless bastard. She said nothing.
McCarthy stared at her a few moments more, then glanced at the men on
both sides of him. "Let's consider this hearing adjourned, all right? Give
Dr. Grant a little time to think this over." He turned to look straight at
her. "A little time. We'll contact you in a few days... find out who scares
you more, us or them."
He had the nerve to wink before he turned away. The other senators
filed from the room, almost bumping into each other in the hurry to leave.
Complicitous men... weak men, for all their power. Julia remained in the
uncomfortable "Witness Chair," giving them ample time to scurry away; she
didn't want to lay eyes on them again when she finally went out into the
corridor.
Using trisulphozymase on an SA-positive person... what would be the
effect? Predictions were almost worthless in biochemistry -- medical science
was a vast ocean of ignorance dotted with researchers trying to stay afloat