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

Martin said.

"Neat name."

"It's a fake name, we can't find his real one. Filbert
there came down with Yttian Flu, the weak-death strain, and had
about two months to live. He holed up in his office and dropped
his clients like hot potatoes. Two months later, they find his
dead body, grinning like a maniac and the equipment in the main
room."

"Equipment which I immediately purchased," Rinhurst said,
"Knowing the nature of his work. Filbert was seeking a way to
achieve immortality, a way to escape his death. He died, but my
agents traced a holophone call to another member of the Dirty
Dozen shortly before his death, in which he claimed to have found
the secret of immortality."

"Livin' forever. Hey, I wouldn't put it past black
biotech," I said. "I remember my cousin Jack had to have his
head reattached after a construction accident, and they did it.
I got to touch his scars. It was cool."

Rinhurst paused. He contemplated this, then moved on. "You
see, boy, I need that immortality. I've sought it for years and
years. Archaic Yttian herbal practices, long since outlawed by
that world's oppressive government. Alien rituals and exercise
and good food. Nothing has helped prevent the aging process, and
I fear I do not have many years left."

Rinhurst got up, despite the cracking his bones made. Why'd
he insist on getting in and out of that chair, anyway? Did he
just want to show that he had enough life in him left to do it?

"This project is to decode what I believe to be the
scientific journals of Filbert Whack-A-Doo, and find the secret.
Have you made any progress?"

"Well, the recording said the immortality thing was in
chapter two, which was locked. Oh, also that his autobiography
was organically coded on the computer."

Rinhurst raised his eyebrows, and turned to McDoole.
"Funny, how your degrees and recommendations had you working for
weeks just to understand the nature of the hardware, and my boy
Lopwagen here has it up and running in an hour."

"He was lucky," McDoole said. "Sir, if you please, I'd like
to continue my research on this project now that the kid has it
turned on. I think a systematic search of the data, now decoded,