"Nancy Kress - The Sleepless - Sleeping Dogs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

I push. "You want to buy one."
He looks at me then, hard. His eyes are gray, with little flecks of brown in them. I say again, just so there's no m
"You want to buy a dog. That's the only reason my father talks about them to anybody."
He finally smiles, amused. "Okay. Sure. I want to buy one."
Donna cries, "But they aren't even trained yet!"
She doesn't have a glimmer. Tony Indivino needs a trained guard dog like he needs a third foot. The Sleepless must have all ki
Y-shields, bodyguards, secret weapons to protect themselves. Nobody's going to hurt Tony Indivino. He'll buy this dog so his scientist buddies
take it apart in some lab, see how it's different from other dogs. All I care is how much he'll pay for it. Maybe I can get a grand out
him. He's one of the "poor" Sleepless (yeah, right), but his girlfriend is supposed to be Jennifer Sharifi. The daughter of an Arab oil p
and an American holo star, she's the richest woman in the entire world.
Maybe two grand. A bed for Precious, a terminal, some new clothes . . .
Donna says, "Well, I suppose you could buy the dog now and then come back for it later, after I done finish its guard training
likes this idea.
Indivino says, "How is the training going?"
"Fine," I say, real fast. I'm not going to give him an excuse to pay less. I stare at Donna, who finally nods.
"Really?" Indivino says.
"Why wouldn't the training go good?" Donna says.
His voice turns serious. "No specific reason that I know of. But that's what I wanted to talk to your father about."
"Then you can talk to me. Daddy's gone for two-three days, hunting in the mountains," I lie. "But I can repeat to him any information you lik
He doesn't even hesitate. Probably Sleepless are used to young people accepting responsibility, even better tha
adults around them. The oldest Sleepless is only twenty-seven.
He says, "What I wanted to tell your father isn't hard data. It's more a principle, but a very important one. It's this: advanced b
systems are very complex. They're past that critical point beyond which behavior is complicated but predictable, and in
realm where behavior becomes chaotic, and more sensitive to small differences in initial conditions. Do you know what that means?"
"No." Donna says, and smiles.
"Sort of," I say, because I had this in the high-school software. He simplifies it for me anyway.
"It means that genemod changes that worked one way in humans might not work the same way in dogs. Or they might work the same
most dogs but not in your dogs. Or in some of your dogs but not in others from the same litter but with different genetic makeup, or differ
vitro conditions, or different environmental conditions."
Donna says, "But our dogs are sleepless just exactly like you sleepless humans are, Mr. Indivino. Come see!"
He looks at me. I say, "It means we should be careful."
"Yes," he says, "there isn't that much research on canine sleeplessness to guide you."
No applications to fund the FDA approval process, since no one has identified significant market opportunity. But, come to thin
how had Tony Indivino heard of this particular market opportunity? Daddy isn't advertising yet. He doesn't have anyth
advertise with: no terminal, no money. I feel a prickle on my spine, and Precious squirms in my arms. I put her down
toddles toward the aircar.
Donna's saying, "You've got to come choose your pup, Mr. Indivino. Wait till you see them, they're so cute youтАФ"
"How'd you hear about us?" I demand. "Who told you?"
He doesn't answer.
"Are you going to report Daddy to the law?" Amazingly, this only occurs to me now. Sleepless generally keep insi
law, the vids all say. Maybe there's too many eyes on them not to.
"No, I'm not going to report to the law. I'm here only to warn you to be careful."
"Why? What's it to you if our business fails?" I almost say "like our others," but I catch myself in time. I don't wa
feeling sorry for us.
"Your business is nothing to me personally," he says coolly. "But we Sleepless like to keep an eye on genetic res
I'm sure you can see why. Even underground research. How we do that really isn't your concern. I'm here only to te
what I have. And maybe a little out of curiosity."
Donna says brightly, "Then you're curious to see the pups and choose your very own!"
She takes him by the hand and leads him away, toward the house. Precious is trying to climb the smooth, rounded s
the aircar, which of course she can't do. In a minute she'll be on her little ass in the dirt. I start toward her and leave