"David Marusek - Getting to Know You" - читать интересную книгу автора (Marusek David)

The stricture against asking questions limits Bug’s functionality,
Bug said.

Zoranna sighed. What do you need to know?
 Shall Bug reprogram itself to enable Bug to process the file as
requested?

No, Bug, I don’t have the time to reprogram you, even if I knew how.

Shall Bug reprogram itself?

It could reprogram itself? Ted had failed to mention that feature. A
tool they’d forgotten to disable? Yes, Bug, reprogram yourself.

A handicapped icon blinked on the cornice display, and the elevator’s
speed slowed to a crawl.

Thank you, Bug. That’s more like it.

A jerry standing in the corner of the crowded elevator said, “The fuck,
lift?”

“Lift speed may not exceed five floors per minute,” the elevator
replied.

The jerry rose on tiptoes and surveyed his fellow pas-sengers.
“Right,” he said, “who’s the gimp?” Everyone looked at their neighbors.
There were michelles, jennies, a pair of jeromes, and a half-dozen other
phenotypes. They all looked at Zoranna, the only person not dressed in AP
brown and teal.

“I’m sorry,” she said, pressing her palm to her temple, “I have an
aneurysm the size of a grapefruit. The slightest strain ...” She winced
theatrically.

“Then have it fixed!” the jerry said, to murmured agree-ment.

“Gladly,” said Zoranna. “Could you pony me the CE23,000?”

The jerry har-harred and looked her up and down appraisingly.
“Sweetheart, if you spent half as much money on the vitals as you obviously
do on the peripherals,” he leered, “you wouldn’t have this problem, now
would you?” Zoranna had never liked the jerry type; they were spooky. In
fact, more jerries had to be pithed in vatero for incipient sociopathy than
any other commercial type. Professionally, they made superb grunts; most
of the indentured men in the Protectorate’s commando forces were jerries.
This one, however, wore an EXTRUSIONS UN-LIMITED patch on his teal
ball cap; he was security for a retail mall. “So,” he said, “where you
heading?”