"Frank Herbert - Operation Syndrome" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

like to be crazy?"
He hesitated. "It's no different from being sane -- for the person involved." He looked out
at the mist lifting from the bay. "The Syndrome appears similar to other forms of insanity. It's
as though something pushed people over their lunacy thresholds. It's strange; there's a rather
well denned radius of about sixty miles which it saturated. Atlanta and Los Angeles, for
instance, and Lawton, had quite sharp lines of demarcation: people on one side of a street
got it; people on the other side didn't. We suspect there's a contamination period during
which -- " He paused, looked down at her, smiled. "And all you asked was a simple question.
This is my lecture personality. I wouldn't worry too much about those headaches; probably
diet, change of climate, maybe your eyes. Why don't you get a complete physical?"
She shook her head. "I've had six physicals since we left Karachi: same thing -- four new
diets." She shrugged. "Still I have headaches."
Eric jerked to a stop, exhaled slowly. "You were in Karachi, too?"
"Why, yes; that was the third place we hit after Honolulu."
He leaned toward her. "And Honolulu?"
She-frowned. "What is this, a cross-examination?" She waited. "Well -- "
He swallowed, thought, How can one person have been in these cities the Syndrome hit
and be so casual about it?
She tapped a foot. "Cat got your tongue?"
He thought, She's so flippant about it.
He ticked off the towns on his fingers. "You were in Los Angeles, Honolulu, Karachi; you've
hit the high spots of Syndrome contamination and -- "
An animal cry, sharp, exclamatory, burst from her. "It got all of those places?"
He thought, How could anyone be alive and not know exactly where the Syndrome has
been?
He asked, "Didn't you know?"
She shook her head, a numb motion, eyes wide, staring. "But Pete said -- " She stopped.
"I've been so busy learning new numbers. We're reviving the old time hot jazz."
"How could you miss it? TV is full of it, the newstapes, the transgraphs."
She shrugged. "I've just been so busy. And I don't like to think about such things. Pete said
-- " She shook her head. "You know, this is the first time I've been out alone for a walk in
over a month. Pete was asleep and -- " Her expression softened. "That Pete; he must not
have wanted me to worry."
"If you say so, but -- " He stopped. "Who's Pete?"
"Haven't you heard of Pete Serantis and the musikron?"
"What's a musikron?"
She shook back a curl of dark hair. "Have your little joke, doctor."
"No, seriously. What's a musikron?"
She frowned. "You really don't know what the musikron is?"
He shook his head.
 She chuckled, a throaty sound, controlled. "Doctor, you talk about my not knowing about
Karachi and Honolulu. Where have you been hiding your head? Variety has us at the top of the
heap."
He thought, "She's serious!"
A little stiffly, he said, "Well, I've been quite busy with a research problem of my own. It
deals with the Syndrome."
"Oh." She turned, looked at the gray waters of the bay, turned back. She twisted her
hands together. "Are you sure about Honolulu?"
"Is your family there?"
She shook her head. "I have no family. Just friends."