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

“You did? You called?” Nancy looked upset. “I told him there was
something wrong with the houseputer, but he didn’t believe me.”

Someone appeared behind Nancy, a handsome man with wild, curly,
silver hair. “Who’s this?” he said in an authoritative baritone. He looked
Zoranna over. “You must be Zoe,” he boomed. “What a delight!” He
stepped around Nancy and drew Zoranna to him in a powerful hug. He
stood at least a head taller than she. He kissed her eagerly on the cheek. “I
am Victor. Victor Vole. Come in, come in. Nancy, you would let your sister
stand in the hall?” He drew them both inside.

Zoranna had prepared herself for a small apartment, but not this
small, and for castoff furniture, but not a room filled floor to ceiling with
hospital beds. It took several long moments for her to comprehend what
she was looking at. There were some two dozen beds in the
three-by-five-meter living room. Half were arranged on the floor, and the
rest clung upside-down to the ceiling. They were holograms, she quickly
surmised, separate holos arranged in snowflake fashion, that is, six
individual beds facing each other and overlapping at the foot. What’s more,
they were occupied by obviously sick, possibly dying, strang-ers. Other
than the varied lighting from the holoframes, the living room was unlit. What
odd pieces of real furni-ture it contained were pushed against the walls. In
the corner, a hutch intended to hold bric-a-brac was appar-ently set up as a
shrine to a saint. A row of flickering votive candles illuminated an old
flatstyle picture of a large, barefoot man draped head to foot in flowing
robes.

“What the hell, Nancy?” Zoranna said.
 “This is my work,” Nancy said proudly.

“Please,” said Victor, escorting them from the door. “Let’s talk in the
kitchen. We’ll have dessert. Are you after dinner, Zoe?”

“Yes, thank you,” said Zoranna. “I ate on the tube.” She was made to
walk through a suffering man’s bed; there was no path around him to the
kitchen. “Sorry,” she said. But he seemed accustomed to his unfavorable
location and closed his eyes while she passed through.

The kitchen was little more than an alcove separated from the living
room by a counter. There was a bed squeezed into it as well, but the
occupant, a grizzled man with an open mouth, was either asleep or
comatose. “I think Edward will be unavailable for some while,” Victor said.
“Houseputer, delete this hologram. Sorry, Edward, but we need the space.”
The holo vanished, and Victor offered Zoranna a stool at the counter.
“Please,” he said, “will you have tea? Or a thimble of cognac?”

“Thank you,” Zoranna said, perching herself on the stool and crossing
her legs, “tea would be fine.” Her sister ambulated into the kitchen and
flipped down her walker’s built-in seat, but before she could sit, a mournful
wail issued from the bedroom.