"Barry Longyear - Dark Corners" - читать интересную книгу автора (Longyear Barry)

“Clear!”

Whump.

Adrenaline.

Blow, pump, pump, pump, pump, blow.

“Clear!”

Whump.

“Still flat.”

Another jolt.

One more.

A pause. A brief moment of silence to allow acceptance to spread over the losing team. Acceptance of
the mortal fact that sooner or later every doctor loses every patient.

“Okay … time.”

“Eight twenty-two.”

“Great damned way to start the shift.”

“It was righteous. We did everything we could and we did it all right. Lighten up.” Alberta hadn’t said
lighten up,kid , but it had been in her voice.

“She knew she was going to die, doc,” said Nurse Ramos. “So did we. Didn’t that news make it down
to the doctor’s lounge?”

“Okay. Yeah, you’re right. Get her prepped and down to the morgue. I’ll be back in a few minutes to
sign the papers. Shit, I hate this part.”

The losing team captain ducked out to hit the doctor’s lounge to suck down some smoke and the first of
twenty cups of coffee he’ll consume that night, risking his own heart in an attempt at lifting himself out of
his feelings of personal defeat. And he was taking the death personally, Nurse Ramos decided. On his
shift and everything. How inconsiderate. Should the doctor live so long, in a few years it will be easier.
He’ll learn that the doctors never win. First quarter or overtime, death wins. Always. It’s the law. Erico
Ramos turned back to the task of clearing out the old tenant and preparing the room for the next
contestant.

The loser this time was Rachael Raddenburg, 61, mother, grandmother, owner of a doll shop employing
three persons. Nurse Alberta Smallet, who had invested some minutes of her night shift hours the past
three days talking with Rachael, knew that the elderly Mrs. Raddenburg would have been mortified if she
could’ve seen herself at that moment. She had been very fussy about her appearance, and now, her hair
askew, she lay flat on her back, eyes sunken, skin waxy yellow, naked, withered breasts, stretch marks,
hardened arteries, and all. She had been so afraid of dying.