"Ellen Datlow - SciFiction Originals vol.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Datlow Ellen)

heading for the loading docks. "The trick is knowing the right stuff at the right time. This area isn't always automated,
just at night. And it isn't automated every night."
"How long have you been planning this?" Danny asked her. "I thought you said you found out while I was
getting my arm."
"Oh, I had all this information in reserve when the, uh, opportunity came up," she said, turning the van around and
backing it carefully into an unoccupied space between two other, slightly larger vans. Just as she cut the motor, the
vans on either side flashed their lights for a split second, making Danny jump.
"Settle, settle," Vic said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "No one's coming, it's just an intranet security check
among vehicles."
"A what?"
"It's their fool-proof backup security system," Vic told him, patting his chest. "Breathe slowly, I need you cool and
collected. When a strange vehicle parks next to an authorized vehicle in a secure area, the authorized vehicle checks
the security clearance of the strange vehicle. In other words, those vans just asked our van for the password, and our
van gave it to them."
 "Thanks to Jeremy's disc."
"Got it in one."
"But now we're about to take Jeremy's disc inside with us, aren't we? What if they ask again?"
"If they ask again, the information they got from Jeremy's disc will tell them they already got the right answer."
Danny sighed, feeling his heartbeat begin to slow down to a more normal rate. The rain had let up some but it was
still coming down hard enough to be more than a mere shower.
"I know, it's weird," Vic said. "Welcome to the world of big business."
They slipped out of the van and Vic led him to the freight elevator at the end of the dock. She waved a white plastic
card at the call-plate and the elevator came to life, the doors opening from the middle but up and down rather than
sideways, which Danny thought made it look too much like an open mouth.
"Now what?" he whispered to Vic as the doors closed.
Definitely too much like a mouth.
"Now the elevator is delivering what our nice code told it is crates of really lousy instant coffee for the vending
machines," Vic told him. "And you don't have to whisper unless it makes you feel more secure, because this thing has
no ears. Ergo, no voice prints."
"Okay," Danny said, still keeping his voice low. "So, what, this thing actually goes to the ninety-first floor?"
"No, it goes to the twentieth floor, where edible consumables are checked in. We tell it to wait until someone comes
to unload the really lousy instant coffee."
"Which won't happen."
"You're a quick study, Dan, and don't let anyone tell you different. From the twentieth floor storage area, we simply
take the elevator to the ninety-first floor and, as my Great-Aunt Stella used to say, viola."
"Won't the elevator activity attract somebody's attention?"
"Maybe, but when they see it's just lubing itself, they'll lose interest." The freight elevator came to a halt and the
door-jaws opened on an empty, dark room, lit only by the exit sign over the door. "You got to keep the elevator
mechanisms properly lubed, or the best computer control system in the world won't make a bit of difference, especially
in buildings this tall."
"I never heard of that before," Danny said, a little suspiciously as they went silently to the exit door.
"When did you ever need to know it?" She put a finger to his lips and then opened the door a crack.
There was a bank of elevators directly opposite. Vic waited for a moment, holding the plastic card out in front of
herself before moving to the elevators, pulling Danny after her by his new hand. "That tells the surveillance cams the
light exposure isn't right here, readjust."
"But won't they notice that down in security?"
"They don't have a single screen for each cam-the screens switch between several cams. Every time the screen
tries to switch to a cam our code has fooled with, the cam will tell it to go away, it's readjusting. When someone in
security finally notices that they haven't seen anything from one of the affected cams for a while-if they notice-they'll
just figure it's a software glitch." An elevator arrived without chiming and opened its doors for them. The inside was