"Jerry Davis - Justification" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

letter----"
"Don't give me that you runty little rat-head! You turned me in!"
"No I didn't! I didn't have the chance!"
The driver stopped the van and turned around. "One more word, one little sound, and I
jolt all of you. Keep your mouths shut."
Vlad turned away, glaring at his own feet. Not a word was spoken during the remainder
of the ride. When the van stopped, it was in front of the Pacific Avenue Euthanasia Center.
Dale was separated from the other two and escorted to a white-walled room where an
attendant strapped him into a bed while an armed guard stood by the door. When Dale was
fully strapped down, the guard left. The attendant was a kind-looking young man in a white
medical jump suit, with long, curly brown hair and warm brown eyes. He prepared a injection
gun and gave Dale a smile.
"So this is it," Dale said, his throat dry. "You're going to put me to sleep like a dog."
"No, that's nonsense. Think positively about it. It's not death, it's transition."
"It doesn't seem right."
"Don't worry, I have a lot of relatives in simulation. I talk to them everyday. They say it's
much better than reality. In simulation, there's no pain."
"No pain." Dale was thoughtful.
While he was distracted, the attendant took the opportunity to use the injector gun against
Dale's neck, right into the jugular vein. Dale gasped, then lied there gritting his teeth. It hurt
like hell.

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Consciousness dropped away like a stone falling down a dark, deep well.

#

There was a large living room, much larger than his old one. There was a big,
comfortable reclining chair, and a TV screen that took up a whole wall. There was no
kitchen, though, and no bath room, and no bedroom. This was because Dale no longer needed
any of them.
"The absolute necessity of conserving energy and resources forced society into some
harsh decisions," his orientation counselor, Marilyn, had told him. "It was either outright
genocide, or relocation of a large percentage of the population into simulation. As you know,
it takes about 1/10,000th the energy and resources to support a person in simulation than it
does in the outside 'reality.' No offense meant, but it was quite obvious to the Census Bureau
that your lifestyle could easily be simulated --- and so, here you are. Your personality and
memories recorded and kept alive in a computer simulated world." Which was fine with Dale,
since all the latest TV shows were piped in directly, just like in real life.
Dale also found out he had been monitored by the Census Bureau ever since his accident,
and that had been used by the Census to setup and catch Vlad and Professor Aki. Virginia
Mergle, the woman who had sent Dale to Vlad, had done so at the request of the Bureau.
"What ever happened to Vlad and the Professor, anyway?" Dale had asked. Marilyn had told
him that they were doing time, right there in the same computer, in a simulated jail.
There is justice in this world, Dale thought, changing the channel on his simulated TV.


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