"Martha Soukup - Things Not Seen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Soukup Martha)

sound synthesizer cried "Help! Burglar! Murder! Stop!" The robot swiveled toward the alarm. Ginnie
toggled it back to idle.

"Let's see what we've got," she said. "You wait outside. I don't want it to see you again."

She turned the robot on again. "When did you last see me?" she asked.
"At 9:09 this morning."

"What did I do?"

"You entered this room. You walked to the northeast corner and sat down."

"How many times did I cross the room to the northeast corner this morning?"

"Once."

"Once?"

"Correct."

"Do you know what you've got, robot? You've got some let-five-equal-four code. You've got a kludge,
and I know who else knew that. Maybe two people who knew that."

"Do you require a response from me?"

"No, thanks. I've already got everything from you that I need." She turned the robot back to idle and hit
the codes on her keyboard that would allow her to erase its memory of the morning's experiment. They
could find traces of the editing, but maybe they wouldn't bother. With any luck, the robot would be in the
scrap heap tomorrow.

"You can come back in."

"Good," said George. She shut the door behind her. "All your coworkers are staring at me. I think they're
wondering why you're spending your morning standing outside your office. Did you get what you
needed?"

"Yes," said Ginnie. "I'm almost certain what happened. I just need to pry Drobisch loose from Yonamura
long enough to talk to her."

"Oh, that sounds like fun. Remember third grade, when we'd confuse Ms. Jefferson who was who?"
George picked up Ginnie's extension. "Drobisch, please." Pause. "He's not in his office? You'd better
page him and tell him to come see Virginia Erickson right now. No, this will not wait. Now!" She
slammed the receiver down.

"How will you hold him?"

"I'll threaten a civil suit for wrongful termination of employment. I can double talk on that for at least half
an hour."

"I owe you several."