"Follett, James - Earthsearch 00 - Mindwarp" - читать интересную книгу автора (Follett James)

permanently fix in her mind her last glimpse of Ewen. He had
turned and given her a little wave before being ushered back
to the interview room.
`Very well. Now, if we go out of the main entrance and
turn left...'
Kally's angel guided her through the streets and small
parks that consisted of grassy open spaces with miniature
fountains, neat flowerbeds, and uniform palm trees. Scattered
around were plastic benches where office workers ate their
lunches. The usual IT'S VITAL TO RECYCLE banners, and
pictures of the emperor were everywhere, flashing in a
variety of lurid hues. It was midday; the batteries of zargon
lights that reflected their glow off the inside of the
intersecting domes of Arama were at maximum intensity. There
were no seasons -- the lights provided 14-hours daylight and
ten hours of darkness throughout the year -- therefore the
trees were tropical palms. Cold was unknown to the people of
Arama; the equitable day and night temperatures encouraged
people to express themselves in their dress -- the more
outrageous, the better. To be fashionable was to wear what
no-one else was wearing which was why Kally's powerful
imagination and creativity made her clothes much sought
after. Her tight bodysuit attracted admiring glances as she
crossed the park. She women wore tops that exposed their
breasts; the latest fashion craze that Kally had largely
instigated although she would never wear them herself.
Tarlan, glad to be on the move at last, was remarkably well-
behaved.
The chord-metro station was a complex maze of crowded,
narrow tunnels and travelators. Nearly everyone was wearing
their guardian angel headbands.
`Left here, Kally... Now right...'
It was a practical system for a populace whose majority
could neither read or write. Also it steered the crowds away
from a short, interconnecting tunnel where a technician was
working on the fibre-optic circuits behind an open wall
panel.
The train hissed on magnetic levitation motors into the
station. The angel had told Kally where to wait on the
crowded platform so that the passenger capsule that stopped
where she was standing was the correct one for Galthan. It
would later separate from the other capsules.


5
Bel walked quickly. He always felt self-conscious when
entering Kally's neighbourhood. Although he was well-dressed
in a one-piece suit that Kally had designed for him, better
dressed than most of the locals, he always felt that people
knew that he didn't belong here, and were staring at him.