"Sean McMullen - Souls in the Great Machine" - читать интересную книгу автора (McMullen Sean)

New York, NY 10010

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Designed by Lisa Pifher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McMullen, Sean.

Souls in the great machine / Sean McMullen.--lst ed.

p. em.

"A Tor book."

ISBN 0312870558

I. Title.

PR9619.3.M3268S6 1999

823c21 99-21934

CIP

First Edition: June 1999

Printed in the United States of America
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To

Jack Dann, who has made so many things possible in Australia
PROLOGUE

The girl moved with the calm confidence of a thief who knew that she
would not be disturbed. The crew of the three-hundred-foot tower had
deserted the beam flash gallery at its summit, and the great eye of
their receptor telescope stared blankly at a tower on the eastern
horizon. Although mounted to look perpetually east for signals from
the Numurkah tower, the communications telescope could be moved through
a few degrees for adjustment and servicing. Unclamping the control
wheels of the telescope, she spun them, slowly turning the glass to
where the moon was rising. A reciprocating clock on the wall tinkled
as it reached 9:45. The calendar wheels beside it declared that it was
the 26th day of September in the Year of Greatwinter's Waning 1684.