"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Chimera" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

I think. But that's all. I only know what they tell me."

"Is there anyone who knows exactly what happened to him?"

"Why?" Anna asked.

Gen thought of Cedric's face as he tore through the rooms in the near
darkness. The sheer terror called to her. She had lain in bed after he fell
asleep and wondered if Dar had felt that kind of terror in the seconds before
he died.

"I think," she said carefully, "some of his quirks are explainable. If I just
understand what happened to him, then I might be able to handle him better."

"I'm sorry I can't help you any more," Anna said, sounding not sorry at all.

Gen sat straight in her chair. She cleared her throat and clutched her desk so
that her shaking hands couldn't be seen by House's holocam. "Actually," she
said with a power in her voice she hadn't had in a long time, "you can help
me."

Anna looked startled. Most people didn't expect Gen—the wispy dancer they had
once seen on stage—to be formidable. "How?"
"You can tell me which lab to talk to."

Anna was shaking her head before Gen finished her sentence. "The labs don't
discuss their work with outsiders."

Dr. Prichard had tried to warn her about that too. Apparently, several
organizations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the
Christian Right, had been fighting for the last two decades to stop the
creation of chimera. PETA believed that chimera violated the rights of
animals, and the Christians believed that they violated the laws of God.
Several militant sides of both groups burned labs where chimera were used, or
freed chimera to live in the wild. Both tactics caused more chimera to die
than the laboratory experiments did.

"I don't care about the work," Gen said. "I just want to know about Cedric. I
think I'm entitled."

Anna pursed her lips. Finally, she said, "I'll see what I can do." and hung
up.

Gen leaned back in her chair. The conversation had taken more out of her than
she expected. But for a brief moment, she felt like she used to when she was
running her dance school, when someone told her something was impossible. She
would laugh at them and say: "I am a ballet dancer. I specialize in the
impossible."

Where had that attitude gone? It used to be built into her, as deep as her