"Lazarevich, Alexander - The Worm - part 1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lazarevich Alexander)

THE WORM

by

Alexander Lazarevich.


Part I.

1992: The Prince of Darkness.

1.

I begin my story in the hope that you won't believe a
word of what I am going to tell you, since I don't want to
shock you, and disbelief might be your only protection
against the shock. Take this narrative for whatever you like
- a science fiction story, a legend, a fairy-tale - but not
for a single moment should you regard it as an actual fact.
I'll try to help you in this by supplying some hard-to-
believe fictitious details. But I don't think I need to go
very far in this - the story is unbelievable enough as it
is.

It's very easy to doubt it - the source is unreliable
and there's no way of checking the facts. For all I know,
the story might have been born in a drunken delirium.

I heard it from an acquaintance of mine who had visited
an international workshop on systems software development.
There he befriended a famous western programmer, invited him
to his hotel room and treated him to a bottle of vodka.
After the third glass the celebrity became talkative and
unburdened himself of his harrowing secret.

While telling his story, he gave the impression of a
man laboring under the awareness of some horrible truth,
that, of all the people on earth, was disclosed to him alone
and separated him from the rest of mankind into terrible
loneliness. This, or the fact that the acquaintance of mine
also was not quite sober by that moment, might explain why
he was listening to it without any disbelief. While
listening, he had only one thought: to awaken next morning
remembering nothing of it. Because one cannot live on
knowing all this. No reason to.

Next morning he had a terrible headache. But despite
all the drink of the night before, the story of the last
night's guest sank deep in his mind and was festering.