"Ken Rand - The Henry and the Martha" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rand Ken)

This would not sit well with patrons. We could expect a riot, and our lives
were in danger, I believed, no matter how confident security acted. They didn’t act
confident.

“Options, please.” The Director’s lips set in a grim line.

Henry and Martha dolls, masks, and puppets were popular with children and
adults, but they weren’t animated. Several animated human sims existed, but they
varied in price and popularity, and none replaced the real thing. Human actions
couldn’t be reproduced in a machine well enough to fool anybody. It had been tried
and it didn’t work.

“No substitute sim, then,” the Director said. He ticked off options on his
thumbs, an annoying trait. “What else?”

Silence hung in the room like a syrupy mist.

“We must go,” a security guard said.

“Go?” A-nan said.

“Yes, go,” the Director said. Save our pouches. Run before word got out that
the humans were gone forever. Run, far away.
 Understanding flushed A-nan’s throat pouch and she leaned against me. Tears
stained her pretty cheek scales.

The Director moved behind his desk and made a call, no doubt for his private
shuttle, and the two security guards ran from the office, ran from the coming chaos.

We had nowhere to go, A-nan and I. We had been with the humans from the
start, studied them, cared for them, and loved them as no others did or could, even
the most ardent fans. None felt the loss as we did.

I feared A-Nan and I would be sacrificed to an indignant populace. How
ironic that we, who loved them more, who wanted them back more than anyone else,
should suffer so.

I patted A-nan’s shoulder. “There, there.” It did no good. Her tears flowed,
like the cub—

Suddenly, I had it.

“Director,” I said, “I have it.”

“What?” Hope speckled his pouch.

“Call in the medicals. And engineering. And electrical. And—” The list went
on and on.

We’d have to be quick.