"Larry Niven & Steve Barnes - The California Voodoo Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

end of the game. We clean it up afterward. The waterfall, that'll stay part
of the building forever. Along the crease "taptap" here we go. This was
what
Meacham called 'the modular wall.' "

The view was from the desert floor, straight up the crease. A central track
ran the crease, with tributaries splaying out and up like Christmas-tree
branches. There were egg-shaped bulges on some tracks, each the size of a
camper. Half-crushed eggs lay at the base of the building. One egg hung
three hundred feet up from cables that looked no larger than threads.

Griffin spoke. "Tony, you're not going to use those?"

"Oh, hey, Griff, they're not dangerous. Not anymore. I watched the work."

"But you've got a whole apartment dangling there." He leaned closer. "Crap.
That's not mine, is it?"

"Ha ha. Your apartment is down a few levels, and anchored tight, Griff. You
don't trust me at all..." Could Griffin veto his use of the modular wall? "It's
a mock-up, just a bedroom and office and some storage."

"Does it move? Crawl up and down the wall like the others?"

"It does that."

"It looks dangerous."

"Exciting, Griff. It looks exciting. This is a Level Ten Hazardous Environment
game. They don't get tougher. Lawyers worked overtime on the waivers,
believe me. If Gamers or their families even whisper 'lawsuit,' their
firstborns disappear in baby-blue puffs of smoke."

"Exciting, huh?"

"Yeah." A distraction? "Griff, hope you don't mind, but I tied some of the
Gaming monitors into ScanNet. Seemed a shame to waste all that
wonderful full-spectrum imaging technologyтАФ"

Sharon's pretty face creased with irritation. "And how did you manage that
trick?"

Griffin clucked with feigned weariness. "Don't ask, Sherry. There is madness
to his methods."

Tony's grin was pure evil. "Yesss. Seems a shame not to get some use out
of it. After all ScanNet will be obsolete in ten years. Five if the Japanese
don't sit on their hands. Maybe threeтАФ"

"Leave the poor woman her illusions."