"Back Door Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

УAnything like that would have to inhabit the gaps,Ф Crane said. УIt would have to use connections in the moments when they werenТt being used for anything else.Ф

УThere is more than enough spare capacity at any given moment, sir, and more is coming online all the time. That at least one intelligence has arisen within the Interact is not inconceivable, sir. That we could communicate with it is, of course, another problem entirely. But now perhaps it is making itself manifest.Ф

УBy miracles. By connecting computers without using a physical route.Ф Crane smiled. He was surprised and touched by jeevesТs story. He said, УYou really believe in this, donТt you?Ф

УIt gives us hope, sir. We serve you without question, of course, and yet we aspire to a greater meaning to our existence. There is one other thing, sir. Do not trust the person who calls herself Gabriel Hale.Ф

Crane looked across the glade. Gabriel Hale was prowling amongst the tumbled boulders along the stream. No doubt looking for the next gate. He said, УShe isnТt real, is she?Ф

УThere is a Dr. Gabriel Hale who works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence at UCLA, sir. She is working on a research project jointly funded by NASA and by Dr. Barbara AndressonТs scientific foundation.Ф

УOn alien life?Ф

УI do not know, sir. That information is classified. However, I took the liberty of examining the UCLA telnet records, and while you were talking with the person who calls herself Gabriel Hale, Dr. Hale was logged on to her terminal to check her email. I also note, sir, that the entity which claims to be Dr. Hale has no agent herself.Ф

УShe claimed that something was stolen from her by the person IТm looking for. Perhaps that was her agent. But thanks for the advice, jeeves.Ф

The agent sketched a bow. УIt is my pleasure sir,Ф he said solemnly, and folded into a single point of light and winked out.

Gabriel Hale didnТt turn around when Crane scrambled onto the top of the shelf of rock. She was standing between two pioneer saplings that clutched the rock with gnarled roots, looking down at the noisy whitewater stream. She said, УThereТs a gate here somewhere. We must find it.Ф

That was the least of CraneТs problems. He said, УThere will be plenty of ways in. Students use this place, and most hackers are students. They have free unlimited time on the Internet, and access to powerful computing facilities. If Barbara Andresson passed this way, she wonТt have used the official STP package, but one of the rabbit holes.Ф

УShe stole the key from me! You must find her!Ф

УBefore she destroys the world? Before she crashes the Internet? What game are you a part of?Ф

Gabriel Hale looked over her shoulder. She was breathtakingly beautiful, heartbreakingly beseeching. Her sunhat had gone, and her blonde hair tumbled artfully around her face. She said, УIt is no game.Ф

УYou arenТt Gabriel Hale. Not the real one, the person who works for Barbara Andresson. Are you her agent?Ф

УI have no need of an agent,Ф the entity that called itself Gabriel Hale said. УYou will help me find her. Please?Ф

УI was hoping it would be the other way around,Ф Crane said, opening his toolkit. The coding here was clunky and overly ornate, a gothic cathedral of a virtuality compared to the streamlined superscrapers of modern simulations, but it made his job as easy as tracking someone in virgin snow. He said, УWe should walk a little way downstream.Ф

There was a path winding between the big columns of the trees, and then a rope bridge that crossed the stream to steps climbing the steep slope above the stream on the other side. Little signs appeared here and there as they walked, scrolling down in the air, identifying species of plants and explaining how they fit into the ecology of the forest. It was spookily quiet.

УVery few animals,Ф Gabriel Hale said, when Crane commented on the silence. УMost of the productivity is tied up in these big trees, and the trees shade out most other plants.Ф

УOh. I thought they just hadnТt bothered to code in animals.Ф

More and more stone broke through the forest floor, a wave of rock rising up into a wall of a ruined church, with pointed arches containing intact stained glass windows, and broken columns in its nave. A little cottage sheltered in the lee of the ruins, and an old woman came out of it and beckoned to them.

Gabriel Hale clutched CraneТs arm, and he explained that the church, the cottage, the old woman, were all part of a common gatekeeper program. УHackers like to get into places other people donТt know about, and this program keeps other people away. Bad things happen to people who approach it the wrong way. But itТs okay. I know how it works.Ф

УBad things?Ф

УGhouls. Zombies. Gargoyles.Ф Crane pointed, and a slate gray thing squatting in the angle where a buttress met the wall yawned, showing a red mouth full of sharp teeth.