《The Jigsaw Man》作者： - Larry Niven【EPUB】

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The Jigsaw Man Larry Niven Produced by calibre 0.6.40 The Jigsaw Man ------------------------------------------------------ Transplant technology through two hundred years of development had come into its own... andraised its own problems. The Belt escaped the most drastic social effects. Earth did not. LN ------------------------------------------------------ IN A.D. 1900 Karl Landsteiner classified human blood into four types: A B AB and 0according to incompatibilities. For the first time it became possible to give a shock patienta transfusion with some hope that it wouldnt kill him. The movement to abolish the death penalty was barely getting started and already it wasdoomed. Vh83uOAGn7 was his telephone number and his driving license number and his social securitynumber and the number of his draft card and his medical record. Two of these had been revokedand the others had ceased to matter except for his medical record. His name was Warren LewisKnowles. He was going to die. The trial was a day away but the verdict was no less certain for that. Lew was guilty. Ifanyone had doubted it the persecution had ironclad proof. By eighteen tomorrow Lew would becondemned to death. Broxton would appeal the case on some grounds or other. The appeal wouldbe denied.The cell was comfortable small and padded. This was no slur on the prisoners sanity thoughinsanity was no longer an excuse for breaking the law. Three of the walls were mere bars. Thefourth wall the outside wall was cement padded and painted a restful shade of green. But thebars which separated him from the corridor and from the morose old man on his left and fromthe big moronic-looking teenager on his right--the bars were four inches thick and eightinches apart padded in silicone plastics. For the fourth time that day Lew took a clenchedfistful of the plastic and tried to rip it away. It felt like a sponge rubber pillow with arigid core the thickness of a pencil and it wouldnt rip. When he let go it snapped back to aperfect cylinder. quotIts not fairquot he said. The teenager didnt move. For all of the ten hours Lew had been in his cell the kid had beensitting on the edge of his bunk with his lank black hair falling in his eyes and his fiveoclock shadow getting gradually darker. He moved his long hairy arms only at mealtimes andthe rest of him not at all. The old man looked up at the sound of Lews voice. He spoke with bitter sarcasm. quotYou framedquot quotNo I--quot quotAt least youre honest. Whatd you doquot Lew told him. He couldnt keep the hurt innocence out of his voice. The old man staredderisively nodding as if hed expected just that. quotStupidity. Stupiditys always been a capital crime. If you had to get yourself executed whynot for something important See the kid on the other side of youquot quotSurequot Lew said without looking. quotHes an organlegger.quot Lew felt the shock freezing in his face. He braced himself for another look into the nextcell--and every nerve in his body jumped. The kid was looking at him. With his dull dark eyesbarely visible under his mop of hair he regarded Lew as a butcher might consider a badly agedside of beef. Lew edged closer to the bars betwen his cell and the old mans. His voice was a hoarsewhisper