"Frankowski, Leo - Stargard 3 - The Radiant Warrior" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

“And fire up your sauna. After they’re buried, and get that done today, everyone who has touched the bodies should clean themselves thoroughly. But all that is simply a precaution. I really don't know what killed them.” Since I had touched the corpses, I stooped and washed my hands with snow.

“It shall be as you say, Sir Conrad.” Count Lambert nodded to one of his men, who went off to make arrangements. “There has been a lot of talk about witchcraft lately. Do you think… ?”

“No, my lord, I don’t. Any so-called 'witches' around are just a bunch of crazy old ladies. If they would eat properly, most of them wouldn't be senile.”

“But everyone knows about witches!”

“Tell me, my lord, why is it that every witch you hear about is a poor miserable old hag? If they really had magical powers, wouldn’t they make themselves into beautiful wealthy young women?”

“You have a point there. I’ll keep an eye out for beautiful young grandmothers who are rich.”

“Do that, my lord. Who were these people?”

“You don’t recognize them? That's Janina's family.”

Janina was one of the girls that I took with me to Three Walls from Okoitz. She was running the store there and was a close friend.

“My God. It’ll be rough telling her. Her whole family.”

“Not quite. Her little sister-Kotcha, I think she’s called-had supper and spent the night with one of the other families. The poor child is in a very bad state.”

I remembered the kid now. Last winter she had become a good friend of Anna’s, and together they had hauled logs in the snow. “Perhaps she should come back with me to Three Walls, my lord. She could live with Janina.”

“A good thought. We will ask the child about it after the funeral.”

I never did find out what killed those people.




Interlude One

I hit the STOP button.

“So what killed them, Tom?”

“I don’t know. I can check it out if you wish.”

He turned on a keyboard and began typing.

“With all our technology, why hasn’t somebody developed some decent artificial-intelligence programs? It can't be all that difficult. Then you wouldn't have to use that silly keyboard,” I said.

“Such programs have been developed. I’ve just forbidden their use. Machine intelligence is dehumanizing to the people that use it. I like people and I want to live in a human world.”

“Aren’t you exaggerating a bit?”

“I don’t think so. The ballet they put on last night. Did you enjoy it?”

“Sure. It was great. What does that have to do with computers?”