"David G. Hartwell - Years best sf 11" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hartwell David G)

"She's been trained by people with experience," Jesse said, glancing at the girl across the habitat bubble.
"She can handle the job."

I turned to Shaunasie. "Is this a suicide mission?" At the same time I asked the question in standard
Chinglish, I aimed a communication laser at the teardrop lens on her left cheek. I sent out some priority
override codes to see what her implants would give up to a licensed Damager. Turned out: nothing. She
was locked to me. As a Damager. But I already told you that I haven't been a Damager forever. Before
joining up with the Coordinator Group, I was a criminal. That can come in handy, like it did now.

"Not necessarily," Shaunasie said. "We're prepared, if it comes to that." She glanced at Jessie and he
looked back at her with admiration and pride.

"So you're willing to throw your life away just to help your neighbors?"

"I'm not throwing my life away. It's true, this isn't our fight. We'll be orbiting out of here in another ten
years or so. But we can't let naked aggression like this go unanswered. Our council of elders was willing
to risk my life to help these people." I had to hand it to the software that was running her. She was pretty
good. I began to wonder whether her comradeinarms had any idea that she was a posthuman. My guess
was no.

"Look, guys," I told them, "I have to tell you, it isn't my job to get mixed up in local politics. All I'm
here to do is gather the information so that the Coordinator Group can put it on the market. If the City of
Reason wants to pay our fee, they will find out everything that I know about you. You've been most
helpful and for that I am grateful, but, and I'm being brutally honest here, if they buy what we're selling,
the City of Reason is going to blow your ship into something that makes smithereens look chunky."

"They're not going to buy your information."

The young woman was probably right. The City of Reason was weird even by homesteader standards.
They had never published a manifesto, had never registered themselves to receive immigrants, and had

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 Jarpe, Matthew - City of Reason

never once paid any sort of fee to the Coordinators. Now, true, nobody ever read the manifestos, nobody
ever emigrated to the homesteads once they were set up, and when you didn't have trade, you usually
couldn't make the Coordinators' fees. But at least most of the homesteaders acted like they were still part
of the human race, if only a distant cousin twice removed. The City of Reason had left Titan, grabbed a
ball of dirty ice at the edge of the system, and had kept to themselves ever since.

"What exactly did the City of Reason do to make you want to drop a bomb on them?" I asked Jesse.

"They sent us Trojan horse datapackets that shut down our physical plant. We almost died."

"Uhhuh. And how do you know these data packets came from the City of Reason?"

"Our friends helped us trace the source," Jesse said, nodding at Shaunasie.

I shook my head inside the helmet. You'd think these crazies could get along with one another, being
united against the rest of us, but it never seems to work out that way.