Power Games [antikvár]

PrologueTh e room was badly lit and uninviting. It smelled of stale disinfectant and there was a thin film of dust over the tops of the metal filing cabinets. The frosted-glass window overlooked the hospital car park, cars and their drivers dim, obscure shapes moving ceaselessly to and fro.The girl seated in the chair watched them dully, while the older woman across the desk from her exchanged looks over her head with the man standing awkwardly in the doorway.The room was small. It had originally been a storeroom. Beyond the open door they could hear the normal everyday sounds of the hospital, the muted voices of the nurses, the whir of trolley and bed wheels, the high-pitched cries of the newborn and the murmurs of their mothers The girl spoke, her voice low and filled with exhaustion, betraying, like her drawn white face and the fragility of her too thin body, the strain she had been under.'And you're sure that no one will ever know that no one' She paused, catching her trembling bottom lip between her teeth. She was young, acknowledged the woman, barely nineteen, and in many ways she looked youngerin others she looked immeasurably older.'that no one will ever be able to find out.''No one,' the woman assured her quietly.A nurse carrying a baby walked past the half-open door. The girl winced as she watched her.'Where where do I have to sign?' she asked, her voice cracking slightly.The woman showed her, instructing as she was bound to do, 'You are quite sure that you know what this involves, aren't you? That once this document is signed there can be no going back .that it won't be possible for you to change your mind ' She looked towards the man standing by the door, who nodded his head slightly.