"Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia - The Mass Extinction of My Beloved" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

extermination of species. Loggers in Brazil and motorway builders and such were now sued for
unlicensed exterminations.

My Brigitte was in communion with all of these developments by morphic resonance, and of course she
was in frequent communion with me too. The endangered species stamps of San Marino had become
like Wanted posters of criminals.

"Which are best to exterminate first?" Brigitte asked me as she lay naked in bed. "Soft fluffy animals —
or ugly nasty ones?"

"You mean Special Effects ones?"

"Yes, big teeth and claws."

"Let me think..."

Thinking helped me delay my orgasm. I thanked God that there were so many endangered species to
contemplate. Then it occurred to me that unendangered species could be reclassified as endangered and
put on the long Red List — because Darwin's doctrine of evolution declares that all species must
inevitably become extinct in the fullness of time. So all species were guilty of extinctability, potentially.
Except perhaps cockroaches. Maybe the WWF should organise an education and training programme
for cockroaches.

Brigitte squealed and pulled a sheet up to cover our bodies. Someone was climbing loudly upstairs. A
few moments later heavy knocks sounded on the bedroom door, as if produced by a small battering ram.

"Avanti," I shouted as my erection collapsed.

The Bishop of San Marino entered, in full robes and mitre, crozier in hand. He was one of my cousins,
Alberto. Obviously he had dressed to impress me.

"Forgive me, My Lord," I said piously, "for I am sinning."

"Are you using birth control?" demanded Alberto.

"I'm a clone," piped up Brigitte, "so I can't become pregnant."

"That is definitely birth control of the most wicked kind," Alberto stated severely. "Be damned to birth
control for the moment. I'm here with an important message from His Holiness..."

He who was formerly head of the Inquisition, I reminded myself with a shiver, having selected the art for
Torments of the Inquisition but never issued the stamps in question, because of Brigitte.

"...about death control," added Alberto.

Brigitte sighed. "If only one could wear a condom to prevent death! We French call them les
préservatifs. Yet what do they preserve?"

"You're French?" Alberto echoed. "Do clones have nationalities?"