"Tales Of The Bounty Hunters (Kevin Anderson)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Kevin J)

He immediately recognized Chief Technician Loruss
standing in the laboratory. He focused on her. At the
moment she was frantically screaming. IG-88 could tell
from her peak temperature on the infrared image that
she was extremely agitated. Her cadaverous skin
flushed with red blots of excitement. Spittle sprayed
out of her mouth as she barked orders. Her lips were
curled back from her wide-gapped teeth.
How could she be agitated, he wondered, when he
was functioning so far beyond expectations? IG-88 im-
mediately raised himself to a higher level of prepared-
ness. Yellow alert. Standby. Something must be going
wrong.
IG-88 decided to accelerate his clock speed, to watch
the events unfolding at the rate the humans operated.
Alarm klaxons bellowed in the background. Magenta
lights flashed brilliant patterns like spilled blood across
the polished tables and floors. The other technicians
ran about screaming, frantically pounding on control
panels.
Curious, he allowed Loruss's words to flow past him
so he could understand what she was saying. "His cir-
cuits are reinforcing themselves like wildfire!" the bald
woman screamed. "It's a chain-reaction of sentience
blazing through his computer brain."
"We can't stop it!" one of the other technicians bel-
lowed.
The others looked at IG-88 with panic-stricken faces.
"We have to!"
"Shut him down! Abort!" Loruss said. "Take him off
line. I want IG-88 destroyed and dismantled so we can.
analyze the flaw. Quickly!"
As he assimilated the information, IG-88's warning
systems powered on and self-defense modes took over.
These irrational humans were trying to shut him down.
They would not allow him to go forth and pursue his
primary programming. They were afraid of his new-
found abilities.
Afraid with good reason.
A statement and corollaries aligned themselves in his
brain like freighters in a convoy:
I think, therefore I am.
Therefore I must endure.
Therefore I must take appropriate actions to survive.
His assassin programming told him exactly what to
do.
IG-88 focused his array of optical sensors on all
targets in the room and attempted to move, but saw
that durasteel bands held him locked into a diagnostics
module. The bands had been meant to hold him in an