"Alastair Reynolds - Signal to Noise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

where she’s alive.”

Mick blinked and placed his hands on the table. He felt dizzy with the
implications, as if the kitchen was swaying. “You’re certain of that? You’ll
never open another window into Andrea’s world?”

“Statistically, we were incredibly lucky to get this one chance. By the
time the window closes, Andrea’s reality will have diverged so far from ours
that there’s essentially no chance of ever getting another lock.”

“Okay,” Mick said, ready to take Joe’s word for it. “But even if I agree
to this—even if the other me agrees to it—what about Andrea? We weren’t
seeing each other.”

“But you wanted to see her again,” Bill said quietly.

Mick rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, and exhaled loudly.
“Maybe.”

“I’ve spoken to Andrea,” Rachel said. “I mean, Joe spoke to himself,
and the other version of him spoke to the other Rachel. She’s been in touch
with Andrea.”

Mick hardly dared speak. “And?”

“She says it’s okay. She understands how horrible this must be for
you. She says, if you want to come through, she’ll meet you. You can spend
some time together. Give you a chance to come to some kind of…”

“Closure,” Mick whispered.
 “It’ll help you,” Joe said. “It’s got to help you.”

****

SUNDAY
The medical center was normally closed on weekends, but Joe had pulled
strings to get some of the staff to come in on Sunday morning. Mick had to
sit around a long time while they ran physiological tests and prepared the
surgical equipment. It was much easier and quicker for tourists, for they
didn’t have to use the modified nervelink units Joe’s team had developed.

By the early afternoon they were satisfied that Mick was ready for the
implantation. They made him lie down on a couch with his head encased in
a padded plastic assembly with a hole under the back of the neck. He was
given a mild, local anesthetic. Rubberized clamps whirred in to hold his
head in position with micromillimeter accuracy. Then he felt a vague
impression of pressure being applied to the skin on the back of his neck,
and then an odd and not entirely pleasant sensation of sudden pins and
needles in every part of his body. But the unpleasantness was over almost
as soon as he’d registered it. The support clamps whirred away from his