"Paul Di Filippo - Weeping Walls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Di Filippo Paul)

Carol reared back indignantly. "Of course I do! I've never even been to Jerusalem!"
All the ambulances had departed. A DPW truck arrived and discharged workers who b
brooming up the glass. A large tow truck engaged the derelict bus and begun to winch its
wheels up. A car and several vehicles blazoned with the modified WW logo (now rea
WW&FE) pulled up, and Lisa and Jake emerged from the lead vehicle.
Clad in a tasteful and modest navy shift, the owner of Weeping Walls took swift str
over to her husband, pecked his cheek, and then turned to address the crowd.
"Thank you, friends, for participating so enthusiastically in the inaugural performanc
Fantasy Exits. I'm sure all your loved ones appreciated your attendence today, as we ush
them off this earth in the manner they selected. Incidentally, your DVD mementos wil
available within the next three days. As for those of you who have preregis-tere
commemorate the departure of your loved ones during the accompanying Weeping W
ceremony, you may now line up in the space indicated by the temporary stanchions."
As the spectators began to herd, Lisa spoke to her crew in lower tones. "Okay, people,
shake our butts! Our permits only run until two o'clock."
In a short time the standard Weeping Walls arrangement was set up the prefab
itself going up quickly on a leased stretch of side-walk where prearranged posth
awaitedтАФand the friends and relatives of the chemically slaughtered bus ri
were being processed through their relatively restrained and somewhat shell-shocked gr
Lisa and Danny moved off to one side, away from their respective employees.
Lisa's eyes flashed like the display on an IRS auditor's calculator "Not bad, not bad at
Fifteen hundred dollars per staged suicide times sixty, plus the standard Weeping Walls
from the survivors.. A nice piece of change. Even after paying your crew and m
good money, there's plenty left for you and me, babe."
Danny pulled at his chin. "I appreciate having steady employment for my people, Leese.
I continue to be troubled by the ethics of this hyper-real simulationтАФ"
"Ethics? What ethics? These losers were going to off themselves with or without us.
didn't push them into anything. All we did was provide them with a fantasy exi
trademarked term already, by the way. They sign the consent and waiver forms, get the
juice in their veins, and then sail away into their fondest dreams of public crash-and-b
We're like the goddamn Make-A-Wish Foundation, only we follow through with our cl
right up to the end."
"Okay, granted. Nobody forced these people into our simulation. But some of t
scenarios you've got me writingтАФI just don't knowтАФ"
"Aren't your guys up to some real acting?"
Danny grew affronted. "The Derridadaists can handle anything you throw at them!"
Lisa smiled in the manner of a gingerbread-house-ensconced witch with two children sa
baking in her oven and a third chowing down out in the fattening pen. "Good, good, becau
plan to ride this pony to the bank just as fast and hard as I ride you."

"I think you'd better have a look at the deck chairs, Lisa."
Jake Pasha stood tentatively at the door to Lisa's office. His boss had one phone pin
between her neck and her bunched shoulder, and held another in her right hand while
guided a mouse with her left.
Lisa wrapped up her conversations with both callers and toggled shut several wind
before turning to Jake.
"This had better be important."
"I think it is."
 Jake made a beckoning motion, and a worker in paint-splattered overalls carried i
old-fashioned wood-and-canvas deckchair. A legend on its side proclaimed it PROPERTY