"Scott Westerfield - The Movements Of Her Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westerfeld Scott)

arm and eyed him with concern.The blood in his veins slowed to a crawl, as if
some medusa's touch fromPetraveil had begun to turn him to stone.The customs
official activated a privacy shield. A trickle of hope moved likesweat down
his spine. Was she going to ask for a bribe?"Your AI unit's up to 0.81," the
official confided. "Damn near a person. Betterget that seen to."She shook her
head, as if to say in disgust, Machine rights!And then they waved him on.HERE,
THE WOMEN of the military caste wore a smartwire garment that shaped
theirbreasts into fierce, sharp cones. The tall, muscular amazons intrigued
Rathereendlessly, heart-poundingly. The minder noted Rathere's eyes tracking
thewomen's bellicose chests as they passed on the street. Rathere attempted
topurchase one of the garments, but her father, alerted by a credit query,
forbadeit.But Rathere kept watching the amazons. She was fascinated by the
constant flowof hand-signals and tongue-clicks that passed among them, a
subtle, ever-presentcongress that maintained the strict proprieties of order
and status in theplanet's crowded cities. But in her modest Local Cluster
garb, Rathere wasirrelevant to this heady brew of power and communication,
socially invisible.She fell into a sulk. She watched intently. Her fingers
flexed restlessly undercafe tables as warriors passed, unconsciously imitating
their gestural codes.Her respiratory rate increased whenever high-ranking
officers went by.She wanted to join.The AI made forays into the planetary
database, learning the rules and customsof martial communication. And, in an
academic corner of its mind, it began toconstruct a way for Rathere to mimic
the amazons. It planned the deception froma considered, hypothetical distance,
taking care not to alarm its ownlocal-mores governors. But as it pondered and
calculated, the AI's confidencebuilt. As it designed to subvert Isaah's wishes
and to disregard localproprieties, the AI felt a new power over rules, an
authority that Rathereseemed to possess instinctively.When the plan was ready,
it was surprisingly easy to execute.One day as they sat watching the passing
warriors, the minder began to change,concentrating its neural skein into a
stronger, prehensile width. When thefilaments were thick enough, they sculpted
a simulation of the amazons' garment,grasping and shaping Rathere's growing
breasts with a tailor's attention todetail, employing the AI's encyclopedic
knowledge of her anatomy. Ratheregrasped what was happening instantly, almost
as if she had expected it.As women from various regiments passed, the minder
pointed out the differencesin the yaw and pitch of their aureoles, which
varied by rank and unit, andexplained the possibilities. Rathere winced a
little at some of the adjustments,but never complained. They soon settled on
an exact configuration for herbreasts, Rathere picking a mid-level officer
caste from a distant province. Itwasn't the most comfortable option, but she
insisted it looked the best.Rathere walked the streets proudly bare-chested
for the rest of the layover,drawing stares with her heliophobic skin, her
ceaseless monologue, and her rank,which was frankly unbelievable on a
fifteen-year-old. But social reflexes onthat martial world were deeply
ingrained, and she was saluted and deferred toeven without the rest of the
amazon uniform. It was the breasts that matteredhere.The two concealed the
game from Isaah, and at night the minder massagedRathere's sore nipples,
fractilizing its neural skein to make the filaments assoft as calf's leather
against them.The deal was done.Isaah made the trade in a dark, empty arena,
the site of lethal duels betweennative women, all of whom were clearly insane.
He shuffled his feet while theyinspected his contraband, aware that only thin