"Rudy Rucker - Freeware" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

"And wendy meat is human flesh!" exclaimed Monique. "It's all cloned from the same
cells as that Wendy Mooney who's in the ads. I thought there was some heavy human
taboo about cannibalism!"

"Fleshers will eat anything, Monique. They're like lobsters. How do you know the woman
in the ad is the actual Wendy Mooney anyhow?"
"Tre told me. He just helped Apex Images design a wendy meat adтАФthe big one down at
the Boardwalk?"

Monique and Xlotl laid back down in the shallow, lapping surf, enjoying the warmth of the
sun and the coolness of the water. Xlotl formed a cavity in his flesh, filled it with water,
and sprayed it up overhead like a fountain. Monique engulfed an even bigger amount of
water and sprayed higher than him. Then break time was over and the two moldies
shared a last intimate embrace.

Just then a little boy stopped to stare at Monique and Xlotl.
"Lookie, Paw, it's two moldies fucking!" he bawled. "I'll try and kill 'em!" The child picked
up a stick and poked it into Xlotl. Hard. Xlotl pinched off his skin around the puncture
before he lost much cell tissue, and then he twisted around so that he flipped into the
shape of an angry chessman, with the stick still protruding from his chest.

"You want me to bust your sack for good, you twerp?" snarled Xlotl, rearing up like a
six-foot nightmare centaur. He pushed the stick out of his flesh so hard that it flew past
the boy's head like a viciously hurled boomerang.

The kid took off crying, only to return a moment later with his father in tow.
"What are you scummy moldies doing out here?" asked the man. Monique jumped up into
her chessman mode as well.

"This is a public beach, dook," said Xlotl. "And we're citizens."
"Hell you are," said the man, not drawing any closer. He was balding and paunchy, with
sunburned pale skin. "You leave my kid alone or else." He turned and moved back off
down the beach. The little boy followed his dad, turning once to give Xlotl the finger.

"Fleshers," said Xlotl. "Why can't we ever get away from them? Why can't we kill them
all?"
"It wouldn't work," said Monique. "You know that. You can't ever kill all of anything."
"The fleshers killed all of the boppers in 2031, didn't they?" said Xlotl. "With chipmold. All
we need is a really good plague germ to kill off all the humans."

"They didn't really kill the boppers. Lots of the bopper software still lives on in us. The
chipmold just helped the boppers move to a new platform. All at once. And really, Xlotl,
you know that if the moldies start a biological war against the fleshers, the fleshers will
come back at us with some really sick disease. Everyone knows that. It's live and let live."

"Also known as a mutual-assured destruction," said Xlotl. "Thank God for the Moldie
Citizenship Act. Now what about this cheeseball situation. You ain't gonna punk out, are
you? Get mad! Think about the kid who poked me."
"MaybeтАФwhy don't I go get a pep talk from Mom. I think she said she was gonna get high
and lie out in front of the Boardwalk today."