"Ann Maxwell - Change" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maxwell Ann)

"… little difference between a Branlow infant and a normal baby. At first, we assumed that all
yellow-eyed infants were Branlows. However, that proved not to be the case. The allele for yellow-eyes
has become as common as that for green eyes. It is merely one of the more obvious of the thousands of
mutations which have been recorded. I'm sure that the Court is aware of the 'epidemic' of mutations
which began in the twenty-first century and has continued unabated. Thus, while all known Branlows
have yellow eyes, less than .001% of yellow-eyed people are Branlows. The Branlow mutation itself is
rare. Less than .0000032% of all live births are Branlows."

"Dr. Sayre," interrupted Mark, "are you sure that the defendant is a Branlow mutant?"

"Quite sure. Molecular scanning is very precise. Although Selena Christian carries an ident card which
states that she is one of the thousands of yellow-eyed normals, there is no doubt that her genes are those
of a Branlow mutant."

Selena suppressed a desire to announce that the card had cost her parents half a year's income, and that
they had bought it from a Humanistos forger. Mark knew it; she'd told him months ago. She had told him
many other things, too.

She had been a fool.

How easy, even pleasurable, he had made it. For weeks she saw no one else, nothing to undermine the
near-giddiness of finally being accepted by another person. Even when he told her that some of their
conversations would be taped, even then she had felt no warning. What do the almost-dead have to fear?
Those hundred dreamlike days of mutual exploration, of growing certainty that he took as much pleasure
in her friendship as she took in his.

God, how the touch of human kindness burned! It was a bright flame in the center of the universe which
consumed and renewed her. And she still didn't know when it began. Perhaps the day she tested his
statement that parans didn't disgust him. They had tacitly evolved a routine of formal questions for the
tape followed by informal conversation.

Often the questions were the same, apparently as a safe-guard against lying. The day had begun routinely
enough.

"Repeaters again, Selena. I know you're not lying, but His Eminence likes to be sure."

Selena said nothing, content to admire Mark's grace as he quickly set up the machine.

"Ready?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Is Selena Christian your true name?"

"It was the custom of my mother's people to give girls just one name. When the girl contracts for a
relationship, she takes the man's family name. In time my parents realized that no man would ever want
me, so they temporized and called me Selena of the Spirit. After they were murdered, I took the name
Christian."

"How were you different from other children your age?"