"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Deus X" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

taking the back route, avoiding the downtown, City Hall, and any nosy reporters.
Marcus tried to focus on his sister, but her blue eyes seemed to bore a hole
through his own. "I've told you," he said, keeping his voice calm. "I can't see
them. There's nothing I can do for them, either."

"How do you know that?"

"Because --" He stopped. Because you can't help someone who doesn't exist, he
wanted to say, but he had said that over and over already. "Because I've got my
hands full just running this city," he said instead.

"Because you're up for re-election, and you can't be seen talking to people who
aren't there," she amended with the tone of a child who had heard the sentence
many times.

"That too."

They rode in silence past the lake, and to the dangerous unmarked intersection
Councilman Seals had been nagging him about. The car merged into eastside
traffic, past his baby -- the industrial park still under construction. He
supposed he would have to find some funding for that intersection before the
three electronics firms opened their doors, and brought in the promised thousand
jobs.

Phil turned the car on a side road and followed its twisty path until they
reached the tasteful sandstone gate that hid the lawn of the private hospital.

"I know why God has been so silent lately," Lira said again as the huge tan
building came into view. Her voice had a touch of desperation and her hands were
shaking. "He's been quiet because He's under sedation."

An hour of paperwork later, Marcus left the hospital, the institutional stink
buried in his clothes. He and Phil said nothing as they got into the car. The
whole ordeal had left Marcus's shoulders so tight that he felt as if he would
pull a muscle if he turned his head too quickly. He had almost backed out when
they didn't allow Lita to bring her plants into her room.

Her voice still rung in his head: You're going to take my friends away from me.
At least let me keep my plants. Please?

He had reached a compromise with the staff, probably because of his local
celebrity status. Her plants remained, in a window she had chosen near the
lobby, and if she responded well to treatment they would be moved into her room.
She would be allowed to tend them every day, either way.

As they drove through the gate and onto the road, Phil turned to him. "Let me
buy you lunch?"
Being in public was the last thing Marcus wanted, but it was something he could
no longer avoid. The campaign was heating up -- and with Jim Sorenson entering
the race, Marcus no longer had the free ride he had once had. Sorenson had been