"Molly Brown - Community Service" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Molly)

"What other choice did we have? Fatality rates for police were at an all
time high; and thanks to the anti-police propaganda being spread by
Spiders and the other terror gangs, recruitment had never been so low. So
we started taking convicted criminals and terrorists who'd been sentenced
to death, wiped out their previous identity and programmed them with the
memories and personalities of dead cops, then sent them into the most
dangerous sectors. They were disposable, like cannon fodder. It didn't
matter if they got killed on duty - matter of fact, that's what was
supposed to happen. Rather than putting them on the chair or giving them a
lethal injection, the courts gave us approval to make some use of them
before they died. Of course it's always been very hush hush; it's hardly
the sort of thing you make public. But I'd say at least half the force at
any time - on patrol, that is, not on desk jobs - are convicted criminals
doing community service."
I thought back to that long ago evening in Larry's Bar; it seemed like
yesterday. "I remember an airborne cop came into the room while we were
working at Northwest Traffic. He seemed confused, like he was looking for
someone... Like I felt today, looking for you. I remember I bought him a
drink that night, while you were dancing with some holovid. He was so
sad... He said his name was Rico Salvo. Was he...?"
Jimmy finished the question for me. "Another ex-Spider with implanted
memories of working at Northwest Traffic?"
I nodded.
"His real name was Louie Lopez, and he couldn't follow regulations,
either," Jimmy said. "Though in his case, what happened wasn't really his
fault. It seems some idiot in dispatch screwed up and assigned the guy to
South Central, which happened to be his home area and I guess somebody
there recognized him, which completely blew his programming. Assignments
are supposed to be carefully orchestrated; no one is ever stationed any
place where they might encounter past associates. And that includes other
cops who might have known an earlier version of the implanted personality.
But whether Lopez was the victim of an administrative fuck-up or not was
not the issue. Insubordination was the issue: it's the one thing we cannot
and will not tolerate." He sighed. "His original sentence was carried out
the next day."
I felt my eyes widen. "You can't mean what I think you mean..."
"Don't look so upset. You never even met the guy. You only remember that
particular incident because it happened to the real Nora before her
memories were downloaded, and we still haven't figured out how to edit the
damn things." He sat down on my bed, keeping the gun pointed at me the
whole time. "How about a guy named Bruce Kopalski? Remember him?"
I shook my head.
"Of course you don't. No more than the current Kopalski remembers a woman
named Nora Kelly. Though word is that once upon a time, those two became
quite friendly, if you catch my drift." He picked up the empty bottle I'd
left on the bedside table. "This was despite the fact the third Kopalski
was more than a little concerned about the second Nora's drinking." He
laughed. "The original Nora liked a drink now and then, but she could
never handle her liquor. The times I had to carry her home from
Larry's..."