[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

characteristic death-grin called risus sardonicus;
every inch of the nervous system affected. A slamming door, a touch,
a cough, was enough to send the stricken man into ghastly gyrations and
convulsions. Till finally the affliction attacked the chest muscles, and he
strangled horribly. Dead...wound up like a snake, frothing...dead.)
But to be thrown out of the hospital. He couldn t take the chance. Almost
without realizing it, the words came out:  Get away from me, woman; if the
robocops see you, they ll arrest us both. Getaway... and don t try approaching
a doctor like this again! Or I ll see that you re run in myself. Now get away.
If you need medical aid, go to the phymechs at the hospital. They re free and
better than any human!  The words sounded tinny in his ears.
The old woman fell back, light from the illumepost casting faint, weird
shadows across the lined planes of her face. Her lips drew back from her
teeth, many of them rotting or missing.
She snorted,  We d rather die than go to them creations of the devil! We
don t have no truck with them things...we thought you was still doctors
to help the poor...but you ain t! She turned and started to slip away into
the darkness.
Faintly, before the rustle of her footsteps were gone, Stuart Bergman heard
Page 84
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the sob that escaped her. It was filled with a wild desperation and the horror
of seeing death in the mist, waiting for her and the man she loved.
Then, ever more faintly...
 Damn you forever! .
Abruptly, the tension of the past months, the inner horror at what he had
almost done to the blue-eyed girl earlier, the fight and sorrow within him,
mounted to a peak. He felt drained, and knew if he was to be deprived of his
heritage, he would lose it the right way. He was a doctor, and a man needed
attention.
He took a step after her dim shape in the rain.
 Wait, I...
And knowing he was sealing his own doom, he let her stop, watched the hope
that swam up in her eyes, and said,  I-I m sorry. I m very tired. But take me
to your man. I ll be able to help him.
She didn t say thank you. But he knew it was there if he wanted it. They moved
off together, and the watcher followed on silent treads.
CHAPTER SIX
The forever stink of Slobtown assaulted Bergman the moment they passed the
invisible boundary. There was no  other side of the tracks that
separated Slobtown s squalor from the lower middle-class huts of the
city, but somehow there was no mistaking the transition.
They passed from cleanliness into the Inferno, with one step.
Shadows deepened, sounds muffled, and the flickering neon of outdated saloon
signs glared at them from the darkness. Bergman followed stolidly, and the
woman led with resignation. She had a feeling the trip would be in vain.
Charlie had been close to the edge when she had left, and this doctor s coming
was an unexpected miracle. But still, Charlie had been so close, so close...
They threaded close to buildings, stepping wide around blacker alley mouths
and empty lots. From time to time they heard the footpad of muggers and
wineheads keeping pace with them, but when the noises became too
apparent, the woman hissed into the darkness,  Geddaway from here!
I m Charlie Kickback s woman, an I got a croaker fer Charlie! Then
the sounds would fall behind.
All but the metal follower, whom no one saw.
The raw sounds of filthy music spurted out of the swing doors of
a saloon, as they passed, and were followed almost immediately by a
body. The man was thrown past the building, and landed in a twisted heap in
the dirty gutter. He lay twitching, and for an instant Bergman considered
tending to him; but two things stopped him.
The woman dragged him by his sleeve, and the gutter-resident flopped over
onto his back, bubbling, and began mouthing an incomprehensible melody
with indecipherable words.
They moved past. A block further along, Bergman saw the battered remains of a
robocop, lying up against a tenement. He nodded toward it, and in the dusk [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

forum-gsm.htw.pl