"Stephen Kraus - White Walls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kraus Stephen)

and found only a plastic hood.

“Dance,” the director said.

She put her hands to her face. She may have been crying; the robot’s optics
weren’t good enough to tell.

The director took a step closer. “You’ll be naked in the articulation lab.”

She looked up. “I will?”

“Of course. We’re designing robots that mimic human movement. You’re
their rule base, their teacher. Robots don’t wear clothes.”

She nodded tentatively.

“Dance,” he said.

After a minute she moved an arm to one side. She lifted to her toes, knelt. She
closed her eyes, listening for some rhythm in the white noise of the recirculators. She
straightened one leg and posed, bent it again and turned. She kept her eyes tightly
shut.

The director let her continue for several minutes. “All right,” he said abruptly.
“Very good.”

She stopped.

“We had another woman in a month ago. Very nervous. She couldn’t stop
shaking. You’re quite natural.”
 Julia touched her cap again. “What happened to her?”

“She’s dead.”

Jacobson tried to extract more information from that statement. He didn’t
remember the other woman, hadn’t ever met her. But the director’s voice conveyed
no regret, no irony, no threat. Only fact.

His gaze was very steady, but it was impossible to tell where he was looking.
Julia seemed uncertain whether to dress.

“How long will I have to stay here?” she asked evenly, knowing she’d earned
a question.

The director seemed taken aback. “A few months, I suppose. You’ll have to
ask Kirkendahl. He knows the details.” He locked his hands behind his back, finally
looking away. “I imagine it’s difficult at first, coming in here. All the procedures, the
discipline. There isn’t a lot of that outside, is there? Mandated decentralization,
multiple governments vying for conscripts. What do they call it? The Chaos? We
don’t see any of that. It’s clean here, orderly. You’re safe. Safer than anywhere else