"Michael Swanwick - The Dog Said Bow - Wow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swanwick Michael)

claps her hands: "wonderful!"

"He rubberized what?" Manfred mutters in BobтАЩs ear.

Franklin shrugs. "Limestone, concrete, he doesnтАЩt seem to know the difference.
Anyway, Germany doesnтАЩt have an independent government any more, so whoтАЩd
notice?"

"I thought I was thirty seconds ahead of the curve," Manfred complains. "Buy me
another drink?"

"IтАЩm going to rubberize Three Gorges!" Ivan explains loudly.

Just then a bandwidth load as heavy as a pregnant elephant sits down on ManfredтАЩs
head and sends clumps of humongous pixellation flickering across his sensorium:
around the world five million or so geeks are bouncing on his home site, a digital
flash crowd alerted by a posting from the other side of the bar. Manfred winces. "I
really came here to talk about the economic exploitation of space travel, but IтАЩve just
been slashdotted. Mind if I just sit and drink until it wears off?"

"Sure, man." Bob waves at the bar. "More of the same all round!" At the next table a
person with make-up and long hair whoтАЩs wearing a dressтАУManfred doesnтАЩt want to
speculate about the gender of these crazy mixed-up EurosтАУis reminiscing about
wiring the fleshpots of Tehran for cybersex. Two collegiate-looking dudes are
arguing intensely in German: the translation stream in his glasses tell him theyтАЩre
arguing over whether the Turing Test is a Jim Crow law that violates European
corpus juris standards on human rights. The beer arrives and Bob slides the wrong
one across to Manfred: "here, try this. YouтАЩll like it."



file:///H|/eMule/Incoming/The%20Dog%20Said%20Bow-Wow%20by%20Michael%20Swanwick.htm (7 of 23)15-8-2005 22:37:22
"The Dog Said Bow-Wow" by Michael Swanwick


"Okay." ItтАЩs some kind of smoked doppelbock, chock-full of yummy superoxides:
just inhaling over it makes Manfred feel like thereтАЩs a fire alarm in his nose
screaming danger, Will Robinson! Cancer! Cancer! "Yeah, right. Did I say I nearly
got mugged on my way here?"

"Mugged? Hey, thatтАЩs heavy. I thought the police hereabouts had stoppedтАУdid they
sell you anything?"

"No, but they werenтАЩt your usual marketing type. You know anyone who can use a
Warpac surplus espionage AI? Recent model, one careful owner, slightly paranoid
but basically sound?"

"No. Oh boy! The NSA wouldnтАЩt like that."

"What I thought. Poor thingтАЩs probably unemployable, anyway."