"Rebecca Orr - Times Child" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ore Rebecca)

"In a camera obscura," Benedetta answered.

"Well, sort of," Joe said. "You probably want to get some rest and think about things for a while. All your
friends are dead, in the past. If you believe us, this has to be a shock."

"What is the year?" Benedetta asked.

"By the Christian calendar, 2308," the woman said.

"Eight hundred and fucking nine years from 1499," Benedetta said. Benedetta realized she didn't know
how to get out of their archival room. What was the difference, 1499 or 2308? They were men and
women, like other men and women. She would have to get to know them, then figure out who would
bend the rules for her. Until then, she'd tell them as many stories as they'd believe.

Joe asked, "You can do subtraction in your head?" He sounded genuinely amazed.

"Yeah, I can do subtraction in my head. You think I'm stupid because I'm a peasant girl?"

"We would never have thought that," Joe said. "It's that we didn't know women were taught to figure in
your time."

"Oh," Benedetta said. She decided not to tell them she could read, too.

Raped, kicked, and left dying, she'd been brought to some fake purgatory run by creeps who'd
out-clevered the Florentines with their toys of light. Purgatory wouldn't have been a good fit. Hell was
where Benedetta had expected to find herself on the days when she bothered to believe in an afterlife.
Most of the time, she figured dead was dead, so up in the future could be better yet. Living in the future,
if she could escape the forgeries of times past in these little rooms, would be another adventure.

"I want to see this future."

"Your immune system can't handle current diseases. Even immunizations to prevent the diseases might
kill you. We can't let you out that easily," Joe said.

"Explain that in words I know."

"Eight hundred years years isn't genetically that large a spread," the woman said, then spoke further in a
strange language.

"Look, I'm not stupid. Explain what an immune system is." Benedetta spoke the words as well as she
could remember them. The future people seemed surprised for some reason.

"I can't explain without you knowing more of our language. We have medicines to prevent diseases, for
most of the deadly modern diseases. These are not without risks and while you can ask for them, you
need to understand what the risks are. And it's hard to explain any of this in archaic Italian."

I'm in prison, with better food, with people to talk to, and without beatings, but it's still prison. "So
teach me your language if that will help me understand better."