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

Anna went to the far end, where a closed door warned against unauthorized
entry. Anna opened the door, and the stench of sickness mixed with a medicinal
sharpness greeted them.

Gen held her breath as she stepped inside. The light here was dim. Tiny beds,
a few cages, and some normal-sized upholstered furniture was scattered
throughout the room. A steel operating table with a large lamp stood in the
center, and several locked cabinets held vials of medicines. Animals lay on
all the beds and a few huddled in their cages.

A man in a white coat was carefully brushing an afghan dog with large
gray-looking bald spots on its back and sides. The dog cringed when it saw
Anna and Gen.

"Take a look around," Anna said.

Gen did. The cats wouldn't meet her gaze. A parrot tried to bite her as she
passed. Several rats growled at her, and one repeatedly launched itself
against the padded walls of its little cell. Many of the animals had surgical
scars all over their shaved bodies. One, a schnauzer, watched her with
reddened, drugged eyes.

"These are the new animals. Some are unadoptable. Some we'll try to
rehabilitate. But they've all been traumatized."

Gen extended her fingers to a rabbit that sat on a cushion at the back of a
wide shelf. The rabbit made a small squealing noise and hid its face.

"I'm beginning to understand that," she said.

"I don't know if you do," Anna said. "Sometimes the sun comes out, and its
warmth hits one of these animals, and the animal freaks. Another time, you
might be singing, and all of the animals will try to hide. You never know
what's going to set them off, and it isn't the same from day to day."

Gen was breathing through her mouth. She hated this smell, this hospital
smell. It had been part of her life for five weeks. Five weeks, and every
morning she woke with the knowledge that what had worked for her had failed
for Dar.

Medical science, everyone said, had found a way to cure most diseases. Human
beings could live longer than ever before, and be healthy while doing so. But
medical science couldn't prevent all death. And it certainly couldn't prevent
misery.

"You didn't bring me here to tell me about the things the animals have been
through," Gen said. "You brought me here because of Cedric."

"I keep him in the house because he's too healthy to be out here. Physically
healthy. Mentally—that's another story." Anna adjusted a blanket around a