[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

didn't like it for beans. Beckie could see as much, even if she had no idea
why they felt the way they did. "What exactly do you think that is?" Beckie
spoke as carefully as Mr. Brooks had a few minutes before.
"I don't know yet. Give me till five o'clock," Justin said, while the two
older people in the shop looked daggers at him. He went on, "If she gets
really, really sick, don't wait for me. I don't want her to die before I do
... whatever I can do."
He still wouldn't say what that was. What could a coin and stamp dealer's
nephew do that a hospital couldn't? But he sounded as if he thought he could
do something, somehow. And Beckie knew the hospitals weren't having much luck
with the disease. Would they have done better in California? How could she
tell?
She made up her mind. "Okay, Justin. I'll see what happens, that's all. I hope
you're not just trying to impress me or something. If you're blowing smoke on
this, I never want to have anything to do with you any more. You hear me?"
"I hear you," he said soberly.
Page 102
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"All right, then." Without giving him a chance to answer, she turned and
walked out of the shop and started back to the hotel. When she went past the
stinking, swollen body in the street, she was reminded you didn't need a
plague to die. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time could do the job
every bit as well.
As soon as the door closed behind Beckie, both Justin's mother and Mr. Brooks
turned on him. "What do you think you can do for her grandmother?" Mom asked,
at the same time as Mr. Brooks was saying, "What do you think you're going to
do for the old bat?" The only difference between them was that Mr. Brooks knew
Mrs. Bentley while Justin's mom didn't.
"I don't know," he admitted. "If I talk with people back in the home timeline,
maybe I'll come up with something. I do want to try."
"Because you're sweet on Beckie, that's why," Mr. Brooks said.
"Are you?" Justin's mother demanded.
Justin didn't like getting yelled at in stereo any more than anyone else would
have. He couldn't do anything about it here. "Some," he said, because Mr.
Brooks would have made him out to be a liar if he tried to deny it. But he
went on, "Seems only fair we try to help her grandmother, though. She might
have picked up the disease from one of us."
"Not likely, not when the immunity shots seem to be working," Mr. Brooks said.
"You didn't let me finish!" Justin said. Mr. Brooks blinked. Justin didn't
talk back a whole lot. Most of the time, he was on the easygoing side. That
seemed to make him more effective when he did lose it. He went on, "Or she
might have caught it probably did catch it when she was coming down to
Charleston with you. Any way you look at it, it's our fault. We ought to fix
it if we can."
"Would you say the same thing if you didn't like this girl?" his mother asked.
"I hope so," Justin answered.
Mr. Brooks started to laugh. Justin stared at him. So did his mom. "Let him
try, Cyndi," the coin and stamp dealer said. "Sometimes, if you're eighteen or
so, you've got to lower your head and charge. If he can talk the people in the
home timeline into doing something about it, more power to him. And if he
can't well, he gave it his best shot, and he won't be mad at us for stopping
him."
"It won't work," Justin's mother said.
"I don't think it will, either." Mr. Brooks talked as if Justin weren't there,
which annoyed him. But they did let him try, and that was all that really
mattered.
He went down to a room in the basement he had to enter through a palm lock.
The wrong prints would have immovably locked the door and turned on
self-destruct switches behind it. He had some of the right ones.
Inside, everything came from the home timeline: plastic chairs, desk,
PowerBook. Any kind of communication between alternates was hard. You needed
enormous bandwidth to send even old-fashioned e-mail. And Justin did exactly
that.
If you have a cure for the disease Ohio has turned loose on Virginia ready,
please send some doses as soon as you can, he typed.
He waited. And he waited. And he waited some more. After what seemed like
forever but was nine minutes by the clock on the wall (also from the home
timeline, even if local ones were just as good), he got an answer. Who is ill,
and how serious is it? wrote the person on the other end of the line.
It's pretty serious, Justin answered. An old lady we stayed with in Elizabeth
is sick now. She came to Charleston with Mr. Brooks. She probably caught the
disease riding in the car with him. Only fair for us to help out if we can. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

glaz.keep.pl