"Sean Williams - Metak Fatigue" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Sean)

n Old North Street- If you "One hundred and fourtee hurry, you might catch him
on the way out.
Barney lifted her coat into her lap. "It'll take at least
ten minutes to get there." "I know," Roads said. "And he has an annoying habit
of triggering alarms wh he leaves, not as he enters." The Head shrugged
till, someone will meet you there. with his eyebrows. "S
nd see what you can findq but Call in the troops a remember: I didn't tip you
off." "Of course not. Thank you." Roads clambered across
his seat. "A pleasure - and to have met you, my dear." Morrow smiled at
Barney. "Do keep in touch."
The Head flickered once, and vanished.
(HAMPT&ER TWO
2AS a.m.
The rain had gone as suddenly as it had come, leaving nothing but dampness in
the air and swirling water on the streets. In places, storm drains had been
overloaded or blocked, and mirror-flat puddles shattered into spray as the RSD
patrol car passed..
Roads drove while Barney arranged the rendezvous with HQ using the secure
phone in the dash rather than the radio. The duty officer confessed to being
slightly overwhelmed with requests: more than just the Mole had been busy. it
took five minutes to confirm that a footsquad and van would be dispatched to
Old North Street as soon as possible, and that curfew would be lifted in the
area once power loads could be juggled across the city to accommodate the
extra demand.
When she had finished, Barney collapsed into the seat and slicked back her
still-damp hair. The alcohol slowly dissolving in her stomach didn't case the
sensation that her world had suddenly been turned upside down. Watching Roads
drive wasn't helping, either.
Kennedy Polis had been designed and built with an emphasis on new ways of
managing resources, waste, and movement. The last, in particular, gave the
city a unique shape. Instead of a complicated tangle of roads and freeways,
Kennedy had boasted a massive twintrack personal rapid transport system
arranged in seven
ntric rings - designated A to G - spaced one kilo- @e apart, web-like, around
the nominal heart of the y. Each elevated guideway, not much wider than a
or nventional sidewalk, had originally carried six Two-seater cabs that could
be summoned from numer-
;,@Vw stops and junctions along the network. Powered by linear induction
motors, the cabs had been computer- ,.:,Controlled, quick and safe, designed
as a compromise between [)uses and taxis. Armed with a smart card, a
..-tommuter could have summoned a cab at any time fromm anywhere in the city -
arrival within two minutes, guaranteed - and taken it wherever he or she
liked.
The annUal cost of regularly using such a service had amounted to tittle more
than the cost of maintaining a
private motor vehicle to travel the same distance, so
patronage of the system - nicknamed the 'Rosette'- had been high. As an added
incentive, the city's streets were deliberarely narrow - with priority lanes
given to bicycles and service vehicles rather than general traffic -
and followed the path of the Rosette almost exactly. . hese long, curving