My Brother's Keeper
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This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. First printing, June 2000 Distributed by Simon & Schuster Printed in the United States of America |
ISBN: 0-671-57873-1Copyright © 1982 by Charles Sheffield All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Typeset by Windhaven Press Electronic version by WebWrights |
A MAN OF PARTSSir Westcott read from a folder in a flat, toneless voice. It was my list of injuries. If I had been feeling sick when the surgeon began his catalog, I grew sicker as he went on with it. Then he coughed and read, "Prognosis: terminal." I remembered the punch line of an old tall story: "So what happened to you then, Bill?" "What happened to me? Why, I died, of course." I gave a sort of hysterical titter. "What are you telling me? That I died and now I'm in Hell?" "Nothing so sensational. Let me finish." Westcott pulled another sheet of paper from his folder. "Your brother. It tells the same story. Prognosis: terminal. For ten different reasons." "It's been a month since the accident, and I'm still alive." "Alive, and doing very well. But your brother Leo was in worse shape even than you were. He was sinking before we could even get him into the theater. I had to make a decision." "You killed Leo!" "No." He glowered down at me. "Your brother was a hopeless case, absolutely hopeless. And you were terribly injured. I had to make a decision. Save one, or save none. You died as much as Leo did." "I'm here, and he isn't." "Don't be too sure of that. You lost partial segments from three main brain lobes, but you had the brain stem and the midbrain completely intact. I took parts of Leo's brain, and used them to replace the lobe segments you lost." "But Leo's dead. I don't feel half like Leo, and half like myself. I'm Lionel Salkind." "All that proves is that you have the verbal part of the brain under control. That's all in your left hemisphere. If you want my honest opinion, yes, I think that Leo is still alive, in some sense, and he's inhabiting part of your skull." He closed the folder. "And at some timedon't ask me when and where, or even howI expect the two halves of the brain to integrate again. You'll become a single individual. And beyond that, I can't go." BAEN BOOKS by CHARLES SHEFFIELDMy Brother's Keeper |