"FWLS56" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

A Future We'd Like to See 1.56 - Bloodlines, Act II
By Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne (Copyright 1994)

"More human than human is our motto."
- Dr. Elden Tyrell _Blade Runner_

The two crossed below me, peeking under discarded cardboard
and inside dented trash cans filling up with fresh evening rain.
All you could see from this height was a pair of octagons,
plastic umbrellas opened up as rain deflectors.

"Dude, it's raining," Wazoo said, waving a hand outside of
his protective raingear. "We'll never find her in this."

"Wazoo, it ALWAYS rains."

"Well, it's like raining more than normal rain. We haven't
found her in the last three days, odds are she went back home or
jumped off a bridge or something."

"Wazoo!"

"Well, it's true. I've heard of AIs doing that. Can't cope
with the lifestyle. Either that or some F.A.ST. guy throws them
over. Don't you watch the news?"

"No. It's too depressing," Joey said. His umbrella bobbed
in a sigh. "Alright. Let's get back to the dojo. The white
belt class is going to start soon anyway. But we head back out
again once they're done, got it?"

"You're the man, man," Wazoo agreed. The two octagons
walked off through the streets.

Usually people who go looking for monsters carry torches and
pitchforks. In C'atel, though, torches go out and you can't
pitch wet hay, so umbrellas are a la mode.

Joey no baka... why did he care about me? I couldn't tell
if I was human or not. I can cut and bleed, and the cut will
eventually heal, but my arm didn't. I had to attach it myself
with electrical tape, the only physical sign that I might not be
human. I tried a number of tests to prove my humanity, all of
them proof positive... robots don't need to eat, and I had been
hungry for two days. Robots shouldn't need sleep, but I passed
out from exhaustion a day ago.

Plus, robots should be able to survive a head-first twenty
foot drop to the wet pavement below with only minor damage. That
was the ultimate test, I decided, and was up here on the roof of