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

since The Conversation, several years back. It was a conversation that
started out as a friendly chat over beer and oysters between a couple of
longtime comrades-in-arms. It was not until three.quarters of the way
through The Conversation that it dawned on Hiro that he was, in fact, being
fired, at this very moment. Since The Conversation, Da5id has been known to
feed Hiro useful bits of intel and gossip from time to time.
"Fishing for something useful?" Da5id asks knowingly. Like many
bitheads, Da5id is utterly guileless, but at times like this, he thinks he's
the reincarnation of Machiavelli.
"I got news for you, man," Hiro says. "Most of the stuff you give me, I
never put into the Library."
"Why not? Hell, I give you all my best gossip. I thought you were
making money off that stuff."
"I just can't stand it," Hiro says, "taking parts of my private
conversations and whoring them out. Why do you think I'm broke?"
There's another thing he doesn't mention, which is that he's always
considered himself to be Da5id's equal, and he can't stand the idea of
feeding off Da5id's little crumbs and tidbits, like a dog curled up under
his table.
"I was glad to see Juanita come in here-even as a black-and. white,"
Da5id says. "For her not to use The Black Sun-it's like Alexander Graham
Bell refusing to use the telephone."
"Why did she come in tonight?"
"Something's bugging her," Da5id says. "She wanted to know if I'd seen
certain people on the Street."
"Anyone in particular?"
"She's worried about a really large guy with long black hair," Da5id
says. "Peddling something called-get this-Sriow Crash."
"Has she tried the Library?"
"Yeah. I assume so, anyway."
SNOW CRASH
tear this card in half to release your free sample
67
NEAL STEPHENSON
"Have you seen this guy?"
"Qh, yeah. It's not hard to find him," Da5id says. "He's right outside
the door. I got this from him."
Da5id scans the table, picks up one of the hypercards, and shows it to
Him.
"Daid," Hiro says, "I can't believe you took a hypercard from a
black-and-white person."
Da5id laughs. "This is not the old days, my friend. I've. got so much
antiviral medicine in my system that nothing could get through. I get so
much contaminated shit from all the hackers who come through here, it's like
working in a plague ward. So I'm not afraid of whatever's in this
hypercard."
"Well, in that case, I'm curious," Him says.
"Yeah. Me, too." Da5id laughs.
"It's probably something very disappointing."
"Probably ananimercial," Da5id agrees. "Think I should do it?"