"Dick, Philip K - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dick Phillip K)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

By Phillip K. Dick



TO MAREN AUGUSTA BERGRUD AUGUST 10, 1923 Ч JUNE 14, 1967


AND STILL I DREAM HE TREADS THE LAWN,
WALKING GHOSTLY IN THE DEW,

PIERCED BY MY GLAD SINGING THROUGH.

Yeats


AUCKLAND

A TURTLE WHICH EXPLORER CAPTAIN COOK GAVE TO THE KING OF TONGA IN
1777 DIED YESTERDAY. IT WAS NEARLY 200 YEARS OLD.
THE ANIMAL, CALLED TU'IMALILA, DIED AT THE ROYAL PALACE GROUND IN THE
TONGAN CAPITAL OF NUKU, ALOFA.
THE PEOPLE OF TONGA REGARDED THE ANIMAL AS A CHIEF AND SPECIAL
KEEPERS WERE APPOINTED TO LOOK AFTER IT. IT WAS BLINDED IN A BUSH FIRE
A FEW YEARS AGO.
TONGA RADIO SAID TU'IMALILA'S CARCASS WOULD BE SENT TO THE
AUCKLAND MUSEUM IN NEW ZEALAND.

Reuters, 1966


ONE

A merry little surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his
bed awakened Rick Deckard. Surprised Ч it always surprised him to find himself awake
without prior notice Ч he rose from the bed, stood up in his multicolored pajamas, and
stretched. Now, in her bed, his wife Iran opened her gray, unmerry eyes, blinked, then
groaned and shut her eyes again.
"You set your Penfield too weak he said to her. "I'll reset it and you'll be awake and Ч "
"Keep your hand off my settings." Her voice held bitter sharpness. "I don't want to be
awake."
He seated himself beside her, bent over her, and explained softly. "If you set the surge up
high enough, you'll be glad you're awake; that's the whole point. At setting C it overcomes the
threshold barring consciousness, as it does for me." Friendlily, because he felt well-
disposed toward the world his setting had been at D Ч he patted her bare, pate shoulder.
"Get your crude cop's hand away," Iran said.
"I'm not a cop Ч " He felt irritable, now, although he hadn't dialed for it.
"You're worse," his wife said, her eyes still shut. "You're a murderer hired by the cops.
"I've never killed a human being in my life." His irritability had risen, now; had become