"John Varley - The Barbie Murders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Varley John)

desk or to straddle the bottom drawer with one foot in the legwell and the other against the wall.

But the office had a door. True, it could only be opened if no one was occupying the single chair in front
of the desk.

Bach was in no mood to gripe. She loved the place. It was ten times better than the squadroom, where she
had spent ten years elbow-to-elbow with the other sergeants and corporals.

Jorge Weil stuck his head in the door.

"Hi. We're taking bids on a new case. What am I offered?"

"Put me down for half a Mark," Bach said, without looking up from the report she was writing. "Can't
you see I'm busy?"

"Not as busy as you're going to be." Weil came in without an invitation and settled himself in the chair.
Bach looked up, opened her mouth, then said nothing. She had the authority to order him to get his big
feet out of her "cases completed" tray, but not the experience in exercising it. And she and Jorge had
worked together for three years. Why should a stripe of gold paint on her shoulder change their
relationship? She supposed the informality was Weil's way of saying he wouldn't let her promotion
bother him as long as she didn't get snotty about it.

Weil deposited a folder on top of the teetering pile marked "For Immediate Action," then leaned back
again. Bach eyed the stack of paper-and the circular file mounted in the wall not half a meter from it,
leading to the incinerator-and thought about having an accident. Just a careless nudge with an elbow ...

"Aren't you even going to open it?" Weil asked, sounding disappointed. "It's not every day I'm going to
hand-deliver a case."

"You tell me about it, since you want to so badly."

"All right. We've got a body, which is cut up pretty bad. We've got the murder weapon, which is a knife.
We've got thirteen eyewitnesses who can describe the killer, but we don't really need them since the
murder was committed in front of a television camera. We've got the tape."

"You're talking about a case which has to have been solved ten minutes after the first report, untouched
by human hands. Give it to the computer, idiot." But she looked up. She didn't like the smell of it. "Why
give it to me?"


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 The Barbie Murders


"Because of the other thing we know. The scene of the crime. The murder was committed at the barbie
colony."

"Oh, sweet Jesus."

The Temple of the Standardized Church in Luna was in the center of the Standardist Commune,