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

Amens sounded around the chamber: attendants and advocates following
the form. Septus glanced sideways toward Satan's Watchboy, an ominous title
for a cheerfully freckle-faced youth, the one person here excused from
closing his eyes during the prayer. The Watchboy nodded twice, indicating
that Leeuwenhoek had maintained a proper attitude of prayer and said Amen
with everyone else. Good -- this had just become a valid trial, and anything
that happened from this point on had the strength of heavenly authority.
"My Lord Prosecutor," Septus said, "state the charges."
The prosecutor bowed as deeply as his well-rounded girth allowed,
perspiration already heading on his powdered forehead. It was not a hot day,
early spring, nothing more... but Prosecutor ben Jacob was a man famous for
the quantity of his sweat, a trait that usually bothered his legal
adversaries more than himself. Many an opposing counsel had been distracted
by the copious flow streaming down ben Jacob's face, thereby overlooking
flaws in the prosecutor's arguments. One could always find flaws in ben
Jacob's arguments, Septus knew -- dear old Abraham was not overly clever. He
was, however, honest, and could not conceive of winning personal advancement
at the expense of those he prosecuted; therefore, the Patriarch had never
dismissed the man from his position.
'Your Holiness," ben Jacob said, "this case concerns claims against the
Doctrine of the, uhh... Sleeping Snake."
"Ah." Septus glanced over at Leeuwenhoek. "My son, do you truly deny
God's doctrine?"
The man shrugged. "I have disproved the doctrine. Therefore, it can
hardly be God's."
Several attendants gasped loudly. They perceived it as part of their
job to show horror at every sacrilege. The same attendants tended to whisper
and make jokes during the descriptions of true horrors: murders, rapes,
maimings. "The spectators will remain silent," Septus said wearily. He had
recited those words five times this morning too. "My Lord Prosecutor, will
you please read the text?"
"Ummm... the text, yes, the text."
Septus maintained his composure while ben Jacob shuffled through papers
and parchments looking for what he needed. It was, of course, standard
procedure to read any passages of scripture that a heretic denied, just to
make sure there was no misunderstanding. It was also standard procedure for
ben Jacob to misplace his copy of the relevant text in a pile of other
documents. With any other prosecutor, this might be some kind of strategy;
with ben Jacob, it was simply disorganization.
"Here we are, yes, here we are," he said at last, producing a dog-eared
page with a smear of grease clearly visible along one edge. "Gospel of
Susannah, chapter twenty-three, first verse." Ben Jacob paused while the two
Verification Attendants found the passage in their own scripture books. They
would follow silently as he read the text aloud, ready to catch any slips of
the tongue that deviated from the holy word. When the attendants were ready,
ben Jacob cleared his throat and read:

After the procession ended, they withdrew to a garden outside the walls
of Jerusalem. And in the evening, it happened that Matthias beheld a serpent
there, hidden by weeds. He therefore took up a stone that he might crush the