"Ellen Datlow - SciFiction Originals vol.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Datlow Ellen)

"Maybe," Jeremy said. "I don't know, I haven't talked to everybody today."
Danny smiled, although the truth was that when Jeremy said something like that, you could never be certain he
was kidding. "So you can tell just by looking?"
"I know what to look for. You got yourself a lot more arm there than you know."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. The Roswell lot was mad scientist stuff, experimental."
"Oh, right-Roswell and UFOs and alien technology. You think this came from outer space?"
"Haven't you been paying attention? The aliens are up in Montana these days. Roswell is a plain old military base
now. Even the mad scientists are gone. After what's-his-name cooked himself, they moved the rest of them elsewhere.
The moon, maybe, I don't know. Those who do know say the guy was working with some kind of quantum crap and
that's what got him."
"Quantum crap?" Danny grimaced. "You mean, like, you go to the bathroom and it comes out in wavicles?"
Jeremy's expression never changed. "That's really very funny, Danny. Quantum stuff is highly weird. You ever hear
about Schr├╢dinger's cat? Things can exist in any number of different states all at the same time, even if they contradict
each other."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you might be able to do some interesting magic tricks with that thing. Did you get an operator manual
with it?"
"It's in the software. Check this out." Danny shifted his shoulder slightly and then extended his arm again, turning
it to show Jeremy the underside of his forearm. Words faded in on the pale skinlike surface along a patch five inches
long and two inches wide and began to scroll upward.
"Now that takes me back," Jeremy said, watching the documentation. "Like crib notes in middle school, only
fancier. A skin animation of this kind'll run you, oh, hell, I don't know, I haven't priced any lately." He looked at Danny.
"Except this not really being skin, it's not really a tattoo, is it."
Danny grinned. "Close enough for government work."
"You really are a very funny guy," Jeremy told him solemnly. "I had no idea."
"Well, besides improving my piano playing, this thing has really put me in a good mood," Danny said. "Prosthetic
limb and antidepressant. Is that like the quantum states you were talking about?"
"Not even close." Jeremy felt around the pockets in his jacket, then his pants, and then his jacket again before he
found what he was looking for, a tiny blue disc in a clear plastic sleeve. "Anyway, this'll be what you came to get.
Vic's code. She doesn't make things very easy."
Danny reached for it with his new hand and Jeremy pulled it back slightly. "Don't crush it."
"I've got control," Danny said. "If I didn't, your big guy'd be on the way to the hospital with a compound fracture."

Jeremy dropped the disc into his palm and Danny made a show of carefully tucking it into the watch pocket of his
jeans. "Yeah, I guess."
"Hey, I didn't humiliate him in front of the blowfish, so it's not like I undermined his authority on the door," Danny
said.
"Bullying is about the only thing Rakishi knows how to do well," Jeremy said. "And like all bullies, it's always good
he gets a reminder now and then that he's not the top of the food chain, that there's always somebody tougher and it
might not be who you'd expect. Also, like you said, no harm done. But all the same, here's a tip for you, Dan-man: what
Rakishi does isn't personal. You shouldn't take it personally."
Danny glanced at the screen where some more tourists were arguing with Rakishi.
"Only blowfish take it personally."
"Oh." Danny dipped his head, feeling sheepish again. "Got it, Jeremy."
"Blowfish," Jeremy continued, almost talking over him, "take everything personally. They don't understand. They
think the world's out to get them when, actually, the world doesn't even know they're there." Pause. "Sorry. Quantum
stuff tends to bring out the philosopher in me. Maybe it has something to do with the butterfly effect. Can I see your
arm again?"
Danny obliged, letting him run his fingers all over it again before turning his attention to Danny's hand, palpating it