"Kevin O' Donnel - Oracle" - читать интересную книгу автора (O'Donnell Jr Kevin)

So he took as few others as he could.

The tell-tale was green, but he always double-checked. Bet-ter his
cherished bonsai go a few minutes drier than never be watered again. He
pressed the re-set button. The light winked cherry; the device hummed. A
query flashed to three million computers scattered over south-central
Connecticut.

Ale Elatey saw the world as one huge circuit, integrated with such
sophistication and intricacy that the human nervous system looked simple
in comparison. The last person who claimed to understand it had died a
century earlier; those responsible for maintaining it lagged years behind
those enlarg-ing, enhancing, and expanding it. A million points of
interrelationship offered a million and one opportunities for error.

When the world-circuit worked, of course, it made magic seem clumsyтАФbut
as hovee news had reported that morning, Thursday's power surge in
Boston had glitched a Chicago main frame that packaged aerosol
anti-perspirants. Held in a warm hand for ninety seconds and then
squeezed, the affected cans exploded.

Money-back guarantees, Ale figured, mean very little to the dead.

And Ale wanted to live. In a world of Three HorsemenтАФexcess carbon
dioxide, unstable technology, and hostile aliensтАФsurvival demanded care.

Water dripped onto his left shoe, soaking through the canvas and reminding
him that care extended to more mundane things, tooтАФlike re-caulking a
leaky watering-can. He shook his head, exasperated by his own
forgetfulness. He had meant to touch up the seam last week.

Still waiting, he ran a critical gaze along the forty potted spider plants
mounted on the living room's left wall. Dozens of brown leaves twisted in
the tangle of green and white. It would take an hour or so to trim them
clean. Probably time to fertilize, too. Maybe even to change the
grow-lights. He made a mental note of that.

The hovee beeped. He and his wife let it run all day, mostly as background
light and music, but had cued the ap-comp to switch it to broadcasts on
any of a dozen pre-selected topics. At the moment, it swirled purple
spirals; an announcer read: "тАФoxide levels; sunny and continued warmтАФ"

Its survey of area monitors done, the Dac Watch clicked, and flashed Ale an
emerald invitation: No aliens flew within fifteen kilometers of Haven Manor.

The doorbell rang.

Not again. He looked through the glass wall to his right, into his wife's
office, hoping that she was free. Emdy dealt with neighbors better than he
did. Besides, he wanted to water his bonsai while it was safe. But she sat