"Justina Robson - Quantum Gravity 01 - Keeping it Real" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robson Justina)

of her movements and its trace readings from her Al-self. As she took hold of the grips it was already
moving forward, and as soon as her feet were off the ground it accelerated rapidly, bending them low as
it curved around the tight turns into the woodland.
She felt Zal adjust to the movements easily. He did not grab her, as she'd hoped he might have to
because he was off balance. He waited until they were stopped at the gates and then slid up against her
and put his hands on her hips.
 'Don't be mad, honey,' he said, so close to her ear that she could feel his breath warm the long curls of
her hair. T thought you wanted me where you could see me.'
'I can see you all I want from here,' she said and took them down the last slope at speed, necessitating
a heavy sideslide into the road which almost took both their knees out on the hardtop. She was almost
certain that he would be able to feel where her real body and the intelligent metal prosthetics grew into
one another and that was horrible, more than she expected, but, much more than that, what most
concerned her was that despite all her training it had taken barely seconds before she was playing a
Game with him when the first rule of engagement with elves, like dragons, is that you never play Games
with them. The smart one-liners were a dead giveaway. That lime and lemon zap - had he started it
deliberately? No doubt. . . but her brooding was cut short.
As she straightened them into line she saw shadows shifting on her right, where the trees clung to a
steep bank. She glanced there and saw
the uncertain, stag-like form of a large wood elemental looking at them from the shade, branches its
bones and leaves its flesh. Such creatures were incredibly rare in Otopia,
The bike was too fast. She caught no more than that glimpse.
Zal didn't say or do any more but he didn't move away either. All the way into town she could feel his
body and the almost-skin contact of his andalune, warm against her back. She found herself mentally
reviewing a still shot of the first moment she'd walked into the room with the ocean view. He'd been
watching her, the whole time she'd been in the room, long before she saw him. Looking at what her
Al-self could analyse from the images now she thought his look at her was disturbingly acute.
I will not be attracted to him, it's only a ridiculous magical trick, this Game, she told herself
sternly. The entire thing is just one big easy weapon they use to get whatever they want out of
humans. Most can't do anything about it, can't even feel it when it takes hold, but I can, and I'm
not falling for that old trick. Magical bonds do not count as reality and they don't stand up in
court. Anyway, all elves stare acutely. It's a species-trait, like the ears and the supercharged
nervous system. My job is to find out all about him, to guard him and to find out who's after him,
and that's all.
Which was all true. But it felt truer when they arrived in the studio parking lot and he got off and
ignored her completely. This time she had to stride at her fastest to catch up as he vanished into the dim,
air-conditioned interior.
CHAPTER THREE




Lila ignored the ride and her various disquiets by forcing them into temporary storage in her Al-memory
system. She concentrated as she met the rest of the band, the support crew, the studio execs, the sound
engineers and the various hangers-on who had accumulated to listen to the recording. As she shook their
hands she took readings and com-pared them with the files she had on them already. Data ran like water
in her mind, showing her their names and every other known statistic under the sun.
The three backing singers were faery; two of Emerald Nation with beautiful green skins, and one
Chalcedonite who was striped like a tiger in tones of dusk and gold.
'He's a Mojave Blue,' one of the Emerald girls, the ultra-dark Viridia, told Lila proudly, because he
was her boyfriend. He introduced himself as Sand, Sandy for long.