"Hamilton, Peter F - Softlight Sins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

"That's enough," Judge Hayward said as Dr Elliot began another question.
Douglas walked over to the chair, and studied the now quiescent figure.
If Elliot is right about regression, if you are who you now seem to be,
then that would prove the existence of men's souls. That would be so hard
for me to really believe in. It would mean there is a God, that Jesus was
born and died for us. A long agonising death nailed to a cross of wood.
And how could we ever be forgiven that? Better we believe in some shared
consciousness theory; that will be the scientists' answer. The other is
too much to bear. An afterlife. That you have been sent back from Heaven.
Or Hell. That life on Earth is nothing more than a penitence to serve
before we can enter God's Kingdom for all time.
"Now what?" Harvey Boden asked,
Douglas left Erich Breuer, wearied by the Prosecution Officer's unceasing
assault. "I maintain the case is closed. We have now proved beyond
reasonable doubt that this is no longer Adrian Reynolds. The Institute
should help Erich Breuer adapt to modern life, and let him go."
"I can't agree with that," Judge Hayward said. "Douglas, you haven't
thought this through. Suppose this really is Erich Breuer?" She held up a
hand to forestall Harvey Boden's protest. "The body contains Erich
Breuer's memories, camp guard at Dachau. Then what?"
"Oh," Douglas saw what she was driving at, his mind racing after the
implications. "War Crimes."
"Exactly. If you bring an appeal over the question of this body's
identity, and prove your case that this is Erich Breuer, then he will have
to face the consequences of his actions in World War Two. Do you want that
to happen, Douglas? Do you want the public spectacle of a trial? Because
that's what you'll get. The Israelis were chasing the original
concentration camp guards up until the middle of the nineties; old men
whose identities were extremely uncertain. Erich Breuer, who by his own
admission was part of the holocaust, would never be allowed to walk out of
the Institute a free man. That's what your appeal would bring."
Oh God, she's telling me it's my decision. Me! Forced into the role of
judge, and probably executioner by default.
"I don't know," he said miserably.
"Let me see if I can clarify the situation," Judge Hayward said. "I
sentenced all the memories to be wiped from Adrian Reynolds's brain. Now
we find a deeper, hidden set of memories." She narrowed her eyes, and
fixed Dr Elliot with a lance-like stare. "Can these Erich Breuer memories
be wiped by Softlight?"
He looked startled. "Well, yes. I would suppose so. But I don't think it's
advisable."
"Why not?"
"We don't understand how they originated. It opens up an entire new area
of neurology to study. It is quite possible that each of us possesses a
similar mental heritage, a window into the past. Think of the data that
could be uncovered, the true history we could learn."
That was when Douglas witnessed the showing of the Judge's claws for the
first time. "Dr Elliot," she said coolly. "Adrian Reynolds is not an
experimental subject, he is a multiple murderer sentenced to personality
erasure. A sentence which this Institute is legally obliged to enact. You