"Paul Di Filippo - The Emperor of Gondwanaland" - читать интересную книгу автора (Di Filippo Paul)

assistant editor over Cody? He wanted to say something in his defense, but couldn’t
think of a comeback that wouldn’t sound whiny. And then the window closed on
any possible repartee.

Gifford unselfconsciously scratched his butt with his foam finger. “Okay, pal,
maybe next time. Let’s shake a tail, ladies.”

Melba winked at Mutt as she walked away. “Gonna miss you, loverboy.”

Then the trio was gone.

Mutt hung his head in his hands. Why had he ever slept with Melba? Sleeping
with co-workers was insane. Yet he had done it. The affair was over now, but the
awkward repercussions lingered. Another black mark on his karma.

Refocusing on the screen, Mutt tried hard to proof the text floating before
him. “Epigenetix-brand sequencers guarantee faster throughput...” The words and
pictures blurred into a jittery multicolored fog like a mosh pit full of amoebas. Was
he crying? For Christ’s sake, why the hell was he crying? Just because he had to
hold down a suck-ass job he hated just to pay his grad-school loans, had no steady
woman, hadn’t been snow-boarding in two years, had put on five pounds since the
summer, and experienced an undeniable yet shameful thrill when contemplating the
purchase of a new necktie?

Mutt knuckled the moisture from his eyes and mentally kicked his own ass for
being a big baby. This wasn’t a bad life, and plenty of people had it worse. Time to
pull up his socks and buckle down and all that other self-improvement shit.

But not right now. Right now, Mutt needed a break. He hadn’t lied to Gifford
and the others, he had to finish this job tonight. But he could take fifteen minutes to
websurf his way to some amusing site that would lift his spirits.

And that was how Mutt discovered Gondwanaland.

In retrospect, after the passage of time had erased his computer’s logs, the
exact chain of links leading to Gondwanaland was hard to reconfigure. He had
started looking for new recordings by his favorite group, Dead End Universe. That
had led somehow to a history of pirate radio stations. And from there it was a short
jump to micronations.

Fascinated, Mutt lost all track of time as he read about this concept that was
totally new to him.
 Micronations—also known as cybernations, fantasy countries or ephemeral
states—were odd blends of real-world rebellious politics, virtual artsy-fartsy projects
and elaborate spoofs. Essentially, a micronation was any assemblage of persons
regarding themselves as a sovereign country, yet not recognized by international
entities such as the United Nations. Sometimes micronations were associated with
real physical territory. The Cocos Islands had once been ruled as a fiefdom by the
Clunies-Ross family. Sarawak was once the province of the White Rajas, as the
Brooke clan had styled themselves.