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

“You told Bug to unlock your archives. Bug is getting to know you.”

“What else did you look at?” The elevator eased to a soft landing at
S40 and opened its doors.

“Bug reviewed your diaries and journals, the corpus of your zine
writing, your investigative dossiers, your complete correspondence, judicial
records, awards and citations, various multimedia scrapbooks, and school
tran-scripts. Bug is currently following public links.”

Zoranna was appalled. Nevertheless, she realized that if she’d
opened her archives earlier, they’d be through this imprinting phase by now.

She followed Bug’s pedway directions to Nancy’s block. Sub40
corridors were decorated in cheerless colors and lit with harsh, artificial
light—biolumes couldn’t live underground. There were no grand
promenades, no parks or shops. There was a dank odor of decay,
however, and chilly ventilation.

On Nancy’s corridor, Zoranna watched two people emerge from a
door and come her way. They moved with the characteristic shuffle of
habitually deferred body maintenance. They wore dark clothing impossible
to date and, as they passed, she saw that they were crying. Tears coursed
freely down their withered cheeks. To Zoranna’s distress, she discovered
they’d just emerged from her sis-ter’s apartment.

“You’re sure this is it?” she said, standing before the door marked
S40 G6879.

“Affirmative,” Bug said.

Zoranna fluffed her hair with her fingers and straight-ened her skirt.
“Door, announce me.”
 “At once, Zoe,” replied the door.

Several moments later, the door slid open, and Nancy stood there
supporting herself with an aluminum walker. “Darling, Zoe,” she said,
balancing herself with one hand and reaching out with the other.

Zoranna stood a moment gazing at her baby sister be-fore entering
her embrace. Nancy had let herself go com-pletely. Her hair was brittle
grey, she was pale to the point of bloodless, and she had doubled in girth.
When they kissed, Nancy’s skin gave off a sour odor mixed with lilac.

“What a surprise!” Nancy said. “Why didn’t you tell me you were
coming?”

“I did. Several times.”