"John Kessel - Sunlight or Rock" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kessel John)

тАЬNice,тАЭ Erno said, completely repulsed. Alois had replaced much of his body
with obsolete devices. His eyes were multifaceted lenses, his left arm was made of
pink pseudo-flesh over a titanium armature, and servos in his legs clicked as he
walked. The fingers of his flesh hand were stained yellow from the cigarettes that he
smoked, imported from Clavius. His shabby blue suit, worn at the elbows, reeked of
stale smoke, and every night Erno could hear him coughing through the thin wall that
separated their rooms. Some of the other residents claimed that Alois had done hard
time in Shackleton, others that he had a fortune stashed away in some secret
account. Erno doubted it.

Alois shrank his finger and held his hand out for Erno to shake. Erno
hesitated, then took it. The hand felt like warm flesh. Alois grinned fiercely and
would not let go. тАЬLook,тАЭ he said.

When Erno looked down at their grasped hands, he saw that AloisтАЩs little
finger bore a silver ringтАФthe same ring that Erno wore on his own pinkie. Startled,
he let go of AloisтАЩs hand, and the ring on AloisтАЩs finger gradually subsided into the
flesh. Erno touched the ring on his own finger. It was the only thing he had from his
mother. He always wore it turned around so that the turquoise stone sat toward his
palm, making it look like a plain silver bandтАФless chance for the inhabitants of Calle
Viernes to notice he had anything of value.

тАЬPerfect mimicry!тАЭ Alois said. As abruptly as he had engaged Erno, he turned
and placed the new hand against his doorplate. The door flipped open and Alois
hurried through it into his room.

Alois was only one of the eccentrics who lived in the hotel. On the other side
of Erno lived Brian, an evolved dog who worked as a bonded messenger. One floor
down the narrow stairs lived a couple of dwarfs who went by the names of Tessa
and Therese, each only a meter tall. At first Erno thought their stature was a freak of
nature, until the concierge told him they were an abandoned genetic mod that had
been tried at Tycho, engineered at half-size to reduce the load on resources. But the
mod never caught on, and Tessa and Therese were left to live in a world of giants.
They earned their living selling pornographic vids that they produced somewhere in
the e-swamp at the north end of the colony. Erno bought one and found it pretty hot.
On disk, they had the ability to convey by expression and pose the desperate need
to have a penis inserted somewhere, anywhere, into their bodies, immediately.
Nothing strange about that: what was strange was to see that ability translated into
money, something that he had heard about back home but never understood. Now,
alone in a place where the sexual rules were all upside down, he understood it better.
He was ashamed to admit how easily he had become a consumer.
 The concierge was already at her desk when he hit the lobby. тАЬGood morning,
Mr. Pamson,тАЭ she said. тАЬYour rent is due.тАЭ

тАЬTonight, Ana,тАЭ Erno said. тАЬI promise.тАЭ

тАЬI promise too. I promise, if your door wonтАЩt open for you tonight, I will not
open it for you.тАЭ

тАЬI donтАЩt promise unless I mean it,тАЭ Erno said.