"David Gerrold - Chtorr 3 - A Rage for Revenge" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gerrold David)

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
"What is the password?" the spider asked impatiently. "You have ten seconds."
Oh, God. What if its recognition functions were damaged? I stretched the middle finger of my right hand
across the back of my left toward the panel on my wrist. "Eternal vigilance-" I nudged the arming button.
"-is the price of liberty."
This time the spider hesitated. Thinking about it? One touch of my finger . . . and I might be able to make
that spider really angry. Damn. It was too heavily armored. The rockets in the backpack might stop a
worm; they couldn't handle this. The best I could do was wound the thing-and maybe buy enough time
for an escape.
The question was--could I outrun a four-meter Vigilante spider in hot pursuit?
I did not feel lucky.
Abruptly, the spider beeped and said, "Password accepted."
"Command:" I said. "Disable for inspection. Now."
The spider hesitated. "What is the password?" it asked. "You have ten seconds."
Huh?
"Sir-?" asked the kid. "Is it supposed to do that?"
I shook my head. "Shut up." I raised my voice again. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
Again, a long hesitation. "Password accepted."
I thought hard for a moment. The spider would accept the password. Maybe. But it wouldn't accept any
other commands. To the phone, I said, "Are you getting all this?"
"We copy," said the voice in my ear. "Stand by. We're looking at options."
"Terrific. So am I." The spider had three flame-throwers, two rocket-launchers, and assorted other
frightfulnesses all slung neatly beneath its belly-several of which were targeted at us.
"What is the password?" the spider demanded.
Dammit! The bloody thing was stuck! It could recognize the password, but it couldn't pass that
recognition back-so it couldn't get out of the loop. How long did we have before its internal monitor
realized it was stuck? Once that happened, it would go on to the next option and no password would be
effective.
"Try the next password," whispered the phone.
My nose itched. I wanted desperately to scratch. I didn't dare. I shouted at the giant spider, "Hell hath no
fury like a pacifist." The spider swiveled sideways and stopped to consider. "Password accepted," it said.
"What is the password?"
The kid said, "Sir-?"
"Shut the fuck up." I was getting angry. On a hunch, I shouted, "Half of being smart is knowing what
you're dumb at!"
The spider thought about that one too. "Password accepted." Right. It was worse than I thought. The
spider recognized everything as a password. But when the accepted phrase didn't match up with the
phrase stored in its memory, it had to start all over. It would have been funny-if there weren't two lives at
stake.
"What is the password?"
An unlikely thought occurred to me. No, it was a very stupid idea. Still . . .
I called out to the spider, "There was a young man named O'Quinn-" and took a step backward.
"Password accepted. What is the password?" Maybe, just maybe . . .
"With inordinate interest in skin!" I took another step backward. So did the kid. Sideways and
backward. Away from the pack. The spider swiveled its cameras to follow us, but said only,` "Password
accepted."
"His singular goal--" Sideways and backward. "What is the password?"
"When he found a hole . ." Sideways-"Password accepted."
"Was to do what he could . . . to get in!" -and backward! It was working!
I glanced at the kid. His face was white. "Easy," I whispered. He gulped and nodded.