"Michael Swanwick - Trojan Horse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swanwick Michael)

"Hey, I didn't come here-"



"Who are you to criticize the latest techniques in spiritual nurturing, hey?" Landis chided gently. "Sit."



Elin did so. Landis put an arm about her shoulder.



"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Coral-I forget her last name. Doesn't matter. Anyway,
she was bright and emotional and ambitious and frivolous and just like you in every way." She rocked
Elin gently as she spoke.



"Coral was a happy little girl, and she laughed and played, and one day she fell in love. Just like thatl"
She snapped her fingers. "I imagine you know how she felt."



"This is kind of embarrassing."



"Hush. Well, she was very lucky, for as much as she loved him, he loved her a hundred times back, and
for as much as he loved her, she loved him a thousand times back. And so it went. I think they overdid it
a bit, but that's just my personal opinion.



"Now Coral lived in Magritte and worked as a wetware tech. She was an ambitious one, too-they're the
worst kind. She came up with a scheme to reprogram people so they could live outside the programs that
run them in their every day lives. Mind you, people are more than the sum of their programming, but what
did she know about free will? She hadn't had any religious training, after all. So she and her boyfriend
wrote up a proposal and applied for funding, and together they ran the new program through her skull.
And when it was all done, she thought she was God. Only she wasn't Coral anymore-not so as you'd
recognize her."



She paused to give Elin a hug. "Be strong, kid, here comes the rough part. Well, her boyfriend was
brokenhearted. He didn't want to eat, and he didn't want to play with his friends. He was a real shit to
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