"What-Compatibility" - читать интересную книгу автора (What Leslie)

LESLIE WHAT

COMPATIBILITY CLAUSE

Reality Rod's was a gymnasium-sized concrete box, its dark walls gray like
tire-packed snow. I stopped in, hoping to catch the Night Before Christmas
Warehouse Clearance. A salesman sporting a brown goatee asked if he could help
me.

"I'm interested in a discount reality," I said.

"Sorry," he said, "but our sale doesn't start until seven."

In times past I might have left without protest, but I sensed this was my last
chance. I had already blown most of our joint Keogh plan on a series of
surgeries, and wasn't about to give up now.

I took off my wool cloak and hung it over the chair-back beside the workstation
display. "I can't come back," I said, flipping on my power-voice. I accessed the
assertiveness program. "And I need a unit. Tonight."

He looked me over, perhaps awed by my newly enhanced physique: your basic
leaner, meaner me with added turbo-thrust, in all the right places.

"Maybe I could make one exception," he said.

I flipped off the power-voice. There was no point in mining what remained of my
reputation. "Thanks," I said, giving what I knew was a matronly grin.
"Appreciate the help."

"According to stats, most women are afraid of technology. I'd recommend the
MacOuterface Lifestyle System-38."

"Fine," I said. "So long as I don't need to read any manuals."

"Works intuitively. Women's strong point, I hear."

"Yes," I said, though what most people called intuition was just as often magic.

"Of course, its main selling feature is compatibility. You plug the link in
here." He pointed to where metal ports had been implanted in my temples.

I forgot to ask what those holes were for," I said.

His raised his upper lip, as if unsure whether to smile or sneer.

I slipped off my granny glasses and brought my fingertips to the port's cold
rim. "Technology. Never understood it."