"FWLS65" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

on the holovision set.

The piccy was large; the man in the empty space of holo was
about my size, and nicely detailed. What I wouldn't give for
gear like this on weekly moviefests. I changed the channel.

"You tryin' to ignore me?" the image asked. Weird show. I
flipped to another channel, but the same thing was on.
Infomercial simulcast, maybe?

"Hey," the image said. "Cut that out. It makes my viz go
all fuzzy. Who're you?"

Maybe the other actor was out of frame. Although it was
like those cool pictures where the eyes follow you; he was
tracking my movement.

"You in the leather jacket and concert shirt," he specified.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. Who're you?"

"Whacker Cracker. I mean, Rynard. Rynard Lopwagen."

"Pleased to meat you, Whacker, name's Filbert. Used to be
at least. I'm dead now."

"Dead?"

"Yeah, dead. Stiff, under the ground, bereft of life and
joining the bloody choir invisible. See that brain?"

I nodded, seeing it.

"It's not really my brain. Nice replica though. I'm, or
rather this recording's just an interactive guide to my
autobiography. Neat house, by the way. How'd a kid like you
afford this?"

"It wasn't me," I said. "It was a guy called Rinhurst."

"Rinhurst, Rinhurst... name doesn't ring a bell. Okay, kid,
let's get some rules straight. See the deck there? I can decode
that. It's an organic code, something I developed shortly before
buying the farm. That's all I do, though. I can't answer too
many background questions, I can't search the database or any
shit like that, I just decode 'n spew and try to keep you company
with my sparkling wit. Neat, huh?"