"Paul Di Filippo & Bruce Sterling - The Scabs Progress" - читать интересную книгу автора (Di Filippo Paul)

bystanders congregated in their flowered shirts, sun hats, and sandals, gawking
from outside the crowd-control pylons. The tainted skyscraper was under careful
attack by truck-mounted glorp cannons, their nozzles channeling high-pressure
fingers against the slimy pink walls.

"That's a major outbreak all right," said Fearon. "Since when was Liberty City
clearstanced for wet production?"

"As if," chuckled Malvern.
Wet Willie was killing network lagtime with a patch of infodump. "Liberty City was
once an impoverished slum. That was before Miami urbstanced into the liveliest
nexus of the modern Immunosance, fueled by low-rent but ingenious Caribbean
bioneers. When super-immune systems became the hottest somatic upgrade since
osteojolt, Liberty City upgraded into today's thriving district of artlofts and
hotshops.

"But today that immuconomic quality of life is threatened! The ninth floor of this
building houses a startup named Mixogen. The cause of this rampaging outbreak
remains speculative, except that the fearsome name of Ribo Zombie is already
whispered by knowing insiders."

"I might have known," grunted Malvern.

Fearon clicked the RZ hotlink. Ribo Zombie's ninja-masked publicity photo appeared
on the network's vanity page. "Ribo Zombie, the Legendary King of scabsтАФwhose
thrilling sub rosa exploits are brought to you each week by Fusing Nuclei, in strict
accordance with the revised Freedom of Information Act and without legal or ethical
endorsement! Click here to join the growing horde of cutting-edge bioneers who
enjoy weekly shipments of his liberated specimens direct to their small office/home
office wetware labs.тАж"

Fearon valved off the nutrient flowline to the screen and stood abruptly up,
spooking the sensitive Weeble. "That showboating scumbag! You'd think he'd
invented scabbing! I hate him! Let's scramble, Mal."

"Yo!" concurred Malvern. "Let's bail forthwith, and bag something hot from the
slop."

Fearon assembled his scab gear from closets and shelves throughout the small
apartment, Weeble loyally dogging his heels. The process took some time, since a
scab's top-end hardware determined his peer ranking in the demimonde of scabdom
(a peer ranking stored by retrovirus, then collated globally by swapping saliva-laden
tabs of blotter paper).

Devoted years of feral genetic hobbyism had brought Fearon a veritable galaxy of
condoms, shrinkwrap, blotter kits, polymer resins, phase gels, reagents, femto-
injectors serum vials, canisters, aerosols, splat-pistols, whole bandoliers of
buckybombs, padded cases, gloves, goggles, netting, cameras, tubes, cylinder
dispensers of pliofilmтАФthe whole assemblage tucked with a fly fisherman's neurotic
care into an intricate system of packs, satchels, and strap-ons.