"FWLS49" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

"Have you gotten into security yet?" Lindsey asked, voice
banging off the cramped tube. The echo resounded pleasantly,
able to skitter along a hundred feet of metal chute.

"Yeah. We've got one guard in the screen-programming room,
armed."

"Hey, I'LL handle this. Let Mr. Casual take him out, then
you folks can do your duty," Mitch suggested, sounding more like
Mr. Macho.

"Good," Lindsey said, "You do that. Are we near the top of
the chute yet?"

"Almost. Mitch, you climb up me and get through the opening
to deal with that guard. Bang on the hatch once you've got the
guard disabled."

"Watch this, Lindsey. A master at work," Mitch boasted,
climbing up the chute and out the hatch. I heard the surprised
gasp of the guard just before the hatch swung shut again.

"What an twit," Lindsey commented, not to herself.

"Yeah, but he's OUR twit," Jody spat. "The only claim
you've got to him is some weird seductive spell. I'd admire that
if it weren't for the fact that it's got me trying to hack
systems while hanging on an invisible cord a hundred feet from
the ground!"

"Put a sock in it," Jody helpfully suggested. "Just
concentrate on getting us into the computer. I've got too much
riding on this to let petty arguments get in the way."

"Come on in, folks," Mitch said, pulling open the hatch and
bracing it with a nearby book. "The area is secure. That guard
won't bother us."

I locked the winch and helped the girls squeeze through the
narrow access hatch. After some huffing and puffing, I managed
to jam myself through and into the control room as well.

"Feeling any better?" Mitch asked the guard, who was
collapsed into a fetal position, sobbing. "Anybody got a hankie?
Randy here isn't doing too good. Awful job, a wife who hates
him, a father who thinks he's a shame to the family..."

Randy the guard sobbed more as Mitch described the horrors
of his life. "...and so on, and so forth," Mitch concluded.