"Modesitt,.L.E.-.Flash" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

the ones on the left, then to the central column, the one that held
the demographic breakdown of Hotters viewers, and then to the
last two columns, one with projected Relaxo sales by
demographics, compared to actual sales. As I'd suspected, there
was only a normalized adjusted variance of 10 percent, just about
standard for home fitness and relaxation products. I called up the
next set of figures.

Reya Decostas, incoming. The commsys linked to my implant,
another relic of the past that I'd kept ... and shouldn't have, not
legally.

Reya would keep link-pushing until I gave in, and, if I didn't, I'd hear
about it three times before she forwarded my fees. I blanked the
Relaxo data. Accept.

Reya's holo image flashed up before meЧa dark-haired woman
with pale skin and classical features, clad in a not-quite formfitting
adaptation of a toga, fashioned of a shimmering translucent cream
fabric. After almost a year, I could finally ignore that classic figure,
a distraction that she loved to use to her advantageЧas I'd
discovered early on, when I hadn't heard one of her conditions on
a study, and it had cost me over a thousand creds.

"Reya ... what can I do for you?"

"Besides the PowerSwift results, Jonat dear? It's not what you can
do for me, but for one of my ... acquaintances. You're the best of
the prod-placement analysts..."

Flattery meant she was about to ask a favor I couldn't refuse or to
offer a job at a rate that wouldn't cover costs. I waited.

"It's noncommerce, but they'll pay your full rate."

"Who or what? And why?"

"It's real, not flash. Nonprof outfit. The Centre for Societal
Research. Your contact is Tan Uy-Smythe. Executive director. He's
expecting to hear from you ... soon. You'll find the codes in my
latest link." Reya smiled. "Now ... what about the correlations on
PowerSwift? I know you didn't promise them until Thursday, but do
you have any preliminary results?"

"So long as you recall they're preliminary." The display came up,
low and to the left, so that I could see the figures as I looked at
Reya's projected imageЧand at the linkcam that relayed my image
back to her. I'd never bothered with synch-simmies that would let
me work on something else and still theoretically project
competence and interest. Perceptive clients can tell the difference.