"Нейл Стефенсон. Snow Crash (Снежная лавина, англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

the Industry, though he's rarely seen. He seems to be meeting with a whole
raft of big Nipponese honchos. Hiro has his computer memorize their names so
that, later, he can check them against the CIC database and find out who
they are. It has the look of a big and important meeting.
"Secret Agent Hiro! How are you doing?"
SNOW CRASH
Him turns around. Juanita is right behind him, standing out in her
black4nd-white avatar, looking good anyway. "How are you?" she asks.
"Fine. How are you?"
"Great. I hope you don't mind talking to me in this ugly fax.oflife
avatar."
"Juanita, I would rather look at a fax of you than most other women in
the flesh."
"Thanks, you sly bastard. It's been a long time since we've talked!"
she observes, as though there's something remarkable about this.
Something's going on.
"I hope you're not going to mess around with Snow Crash," she says.
"Da5id won't listen to me."
"What am I, a model of self-restraint? I'm exactly the kind of guy who
would mess around with it."
"I know you better than that. You're impulsive. But you're very clever.
You have those sword-fighting reflexes."
"What does that have to do with drug abuse?'
"It means you can see bad things coming and deflect them. It's an
instinct, not a learned thing. As soon as you turned around and saw me, that
look came over your face, like, what's going on? What the hell is Juanita up
to?"
"I didn't think you talked to people in the Metaverse."
"I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry," she says. "And
I'll always talk to you."
"Why me?"
"You know. Because of us. Remember? Because of our relationship-when I
was writing this thing-you and I are the only two people who can ever have
an honest conversation in the Metaverse."
"You're just the same mystical crank you always were," he says, smiling
so as to make this a charming statement.
"You can't imagine how mystical and cranky lam now, Him."
"How mystical and cranky are you?"
She eyes him warily. Exactly the same way she did when he came into her
office years ago.
It comes into his mind to wonder why she is always so alert in his
presence. In college, he used to think that she was afraid of
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his intellect, but he's known for years that this is the last of her
worries. At Black Sun Systems, he figured that it was just typical female
guardedness-Juanita was afraid he was trying to get her into the sack. But
this, too, is pretty much out of the question.
At this late date in his romantic career, he is j-~st canny enough to
come up with a new theory: She's being careful because she likes him. She