"Peter F. Hamilton - Lightstorm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

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THE WEB: LIGHTSTORM
Peter F. Hamilton

From the Novella collection ‘The Web: 2027’ (1998)



CONTENTS
ONE - TWO - THREE - FOUR - FIVE - SIX - SEVEN - EIGHT - NINE -
TEN - ELEVEN
 CHAPTER ONE - MEETING OFF SUNSET
I was flying down Sunset Boulevard, three metres above the ground, flapping my
wings in a lazy motion as if I were part of a slow-motion scene in some old 2-D
movie. It’s a deceptive action, I was actually zipping along quite fast above the
heads of the historical characters and myth-creatures thronging the wide yellow-brick
strand between the Hollywood gamer company blocks. Good thing, too. I didn’t
want to keep my news exclusive. What happened last night was plain creepy.
Up ahead, a group of tall elves and knights, wearing armour that shone like
polished chrome, were standing outside the MaxiFox block. They were waiting to
spin in to the Camelot Ore Attack site. From my angle the surface of the block
looked like a chrome rainbow that was slowly melting into whirlpool curves. A big
rosette of sapphire and emerald slid down in front of the group, and they stepped
through together.
They couldn’t have been phreaks. The Camelot games were venomous when
they started coming out. That was months ago. Now, everyone knows the blackwire
tricks to boost your play character status. Perhaps they were one-mip nostalgia
buffs, a bit like Grandpa. Except he’s not one-mip. Of course!
I flew on past the MaxiFox block, with its paltry queue of people waiting to spin
in. They really ought to shove Camelot out on disk and reboot the block. It’s
November, after all; the gamer companies are starting to line up their big new
Christmas titles.
Disney’s block was already advertising the new Schwarzenegger game with sleek,