"Richard Wilson - Mother to the World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Richard)

but on biochemistry. Germ warfare, sure. There'd been prop-
aganda from both sides about that, but nothing had been
hinted about a biological agent, as it must have been, that
could break down human cells and release the water.
"M.R.," he told her. "Better than nerve gas or the neutron
bomb." Like those, it left the buildings and equipment intact.
Unlike them, it didn't leave any messy corpses only the
bones, which crumbled and blew away. Except the bone dust
trapped inside the pathetic mounds of clothing that lay every-
where in the city.
"Are they coming over now that they beat us?"
"I'm sure they intended to. But there can't be any of them
left. They outsmarted themselves, I guess. The wind must
 have blown it right back at them. I don't really know what
happened, Siss. All I know is that everybody's gone now,
except you and me."
"But the animals"
Rolfe had found it best in trying to explain something to
Siss to keep it simple, especially when he didn't understand
it himself. Just as he had learned long ago that if he didn't
know how to pronounce a word he should say it loud and
confidently.
So all he told Siss was that the bad people had got hold
of 'a terrible weapon called M.R. she'd heard of that and
used it on the good people and that nearly everybody had
died. Not the animals, though, and damned if he knew why.
"Animals don't sin," Siss told him.
"That's as good an explanation as any I can think of," he
said. She was silent for a while. Then she said: "Your name
initials are M.R., aren't they?"
He'd never considered it before, but she was right. Martin
Roife Massive Retaliation. I hope she doesn't blame every-
thing on me, he thought. But then she spoke again. "M.R.
That's short for Mister. What I call you. Your name that I
have for you. Mister Ralph."
"Tell me again how we were saved, Mr. Ralph."
She used the expression in an almost evangelical sense,
making him uncomfortable. Rolfe was a practical man, a
realist and freethinker.
"You know as well as I do, Siss," he said. "It's because
Professor Cantwell was doing government research and
because he was having a party. You certainly remember;
Cantwell was your boss."
"I know that. But you tell it so good and I like to hear it."
"All right. Bill Cantwell was an old friend of mine from
the army and when I came to New York I gave him a call at
the University. It was the first time I'd talked to him in years;
I had no idea he'd married again and had set up housekeeping
in Manhattan."
"And had a working girl named Siss," she put in.