"Russo, Richard Paul - Just Drive, She Said" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russo Richard Paul)

"Robert." She nodded. "Robert, do you have any idea what's been happening
to you?"
I shook my head.
"Of course not. Ever heard of parallel universes?"
"Sure. As an idea, not something that actually exists."
"They exist. We've been moving from one to another." She signaled for two
more drinks, then looked at me for a minute before going on. "The console
in the car? It generates probability waves that slip us from one universe
to another."
The drinks came, and she drank half of hers immediately. It was a crazy
idea, but how else had I come to this place? We sat for a while in
silence, drinking. Actually, I kind of liked the idea of traveling between
universes. It beat hell out of sitting alone in an empty apartment all
weekend.
"Wait a second," I said. "How the hell do you know how to speak from one
place to another? You can't know all these languages."
She shook her head. "I don't." She tapped at the base of her skull. "But
this does. Batch of microchips planted in my head." Then she stretched out
her arms. "Robert, I'm wired. I've got a built-in receiver running through
my whole body. Every time I shift universes, my body pulls in all the
radio and television signals, whatever's out there, and the batch in my
head does the rest. In ten or fifteen minutes, I've got enough of the
language to get by. That's how I picked up your slang. And each time I
shift places, I shift languages. Or I can lock onto one, like I have with
yours." She paused. "I like being able to talk to you."
I looked at her for a minute.
"Why? Why are you traveling between universes? And who the hell is after
you?"
She didn't answer. She returned my gaze for a while, stood, then said,
"Let's get back to the room."
Without thinking, I opened my wallet to leave a tip. My paper money had
changed from green to the brightly colored bills I'd seen Victoria use.
"Just like the car," Victoria said. "Anything that's not alive." She took
two small bills from my wallet, left them on the table.
I felt a lot drunker as we walked back to the motel. Or maybe it was just
overload. I felt I was moving through water. Or mud. It seemed like a long
trip across the parking lot, but we finally reached our room and went
inside.
I dropped into one of the chairs. Victoria sat on the bed with her back
against the wall. Someone in the room above us kept dropping things onto
the floor.
"When I first opened the car door and saw you," I said, "it looked like
you were trying to decide whether or not to shoot me."
Victoria shook her head slightly and smiled. "I would never have shot
you."
"Maybe you shouldn't tell me that. Maybe I'll just take off."
"Yeah? Where the hell are you going to go?"
I shrugged.
"No," she said. "I was trying to decide whether or not to take you with
me."