"Vernor Vinge - The Cookie Monster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

upset.

Finally Michael said, "I take it you donтАЩt have a twin sister, Ellen?"

"No!" said both.

"So one of you is an impostor. But youтАЩve spun around so often now that I canтАЩt tell who is the
original. Ha." He pointed at one of the Ellens. "Another good reason for having security badges."

But Ellen and Ellen were ignoring everyone except themselves. Except for their chorus of "No!",
their words were just mutual interruptions, unintelligible. Finally, they hesitated and gave each
other a nasty smile. Each reached into her pocket. One came out with a dollar coin, and the other
came out empty.

"Ha! IтАЩve got the token. Deadlock broken." The other grinned and nodded. Dollar-coin Ellen turned
to Michael. "Look, weтАЩre both real. And weтАЩre both only-children."

Michael looked from one to the other. "YouтАЩre certainly not clones, either."

"Obviously," said the token holder. She looked at the other Ellen and asked, "Fridge-rot?"

The other nodded and said, "In April I made that worse." And both of them laughed.

Token holder: "GerryтАЩs exam in Olson Hall?"

"Yup."

Token holder: "Michael?"

"After that," the other replied, and then she blushed. After a second the token holder blushed,
too.

Michael said dryly, "And youтАЩre not perfectly identical."



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Token holder Ellen gave him a crooked smile. "True. IтАЩve never seen you before in my life." She
turned and tossed the dollar coin to the other Ellen, left hand to left hand.

And now that Ellen had the floor. She was also the version wearing a security badge. Call her NSA
Ellen. "As far as IтАУweтАУcan tell, we had the same stream of consciousness up through the day we
took Gerry ReichтАЩs recruitment exam. Since then, weтАЩve had our own lives. WeтАЩve even got our own
new friends." She was looking in the direction of Dixie MaeтАЩs camera.

Grader Ellen turned to follow her gaze. "Come on out, guys. We can see your camera lens."

Victor and Dixie Mae stood and walked out of the security cell.