"FWLS7" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

"Looks like a cylindrical container of glass, with some
tapering at the top," Clara responded. "I can't make out the
engraving, there's too many scratches."

"Bring it over here, I'll run it through the image
enhancer," I said, getting up from the dusty ground and
uncovering the computer equipment I had set up. Clara brushed
aside some of her now-dirty brown hair, and placed the container
in the slot.

"With some simple texture mapping and fractal
transformation, we should be able to tell what the engraving
originally said. Ah, here it is."

"I gotta admit, the money we spent on this system was worth
it, Alain. I can't make out the last few letters... it says...
'Budwei'?"

"I'm not sure either," I said. "I'll run it through the
database... ah. Partial match on a brand of beer."

"Beer?"

"A primitive alcoholic beverage," I said.

"That's it?" some little snot said from behind me. "It's a
drink bottle of some kind?"

"Who's the urchin?" I whispered to Clara.

Clara shrugged. "Billy. I think he belongs to one of the
interns."

"Well, Billy," I said, turning around. "Picture this.
You're in a late-twentieth century bar. 'Beat it' is playing on
the jukebox, and a few motorcyclists are playing pool. One of
them bumps you with their wooden pool cue, disturbing their
attempt to place a round ball in a hole on the felt board. They
get angry, and grab one of these." I took the bottle from the
slot on the machine. "They smash it against the brass bartop.
Maybe he'll cut your intestines with the jagged edge, but you can
avoid that. Little to you know that his buddy at the pool game
is waiting to slash at you from the side. Still think it's just
a drink bottle, Billy?"

"Yeah, and you're pretty psychotic too," Billy said. "As if
anybody cares about relics from only a hundred years or so ago."

Before I could demonstrate the technique I had described