"Rudy Rucker - Realware" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

We need to find a way to make cheap housing for the poor. But hey, just for right now, let me be your umbrella." Cobb
stuck up his arms, and his tissues flowed upward, spreading out and thinning to make a giant umbrella that they could
all stand under, the five young people in a circle around the moldie. "Better hold up the edges," said Cobb. He'd used
so much of his body flesh in the umbrella that his head had sunk down to chest-level.

"Where's Randy now?" asked Yoke.
"By now I imagine he's found a moldie hooker like he was looking for. I really should get that boy up to the Moon to
be with his father. Eventually."

"Cobb's talking about his great-grandson," Yoke explained to the others. "Randy Karl Tucker. He's a cheeseball from
Kentucky. He lives in Santa Cruz. Tre and Terri Dietz hate him. Randy kidnapped one of their moldies by putting a
leech-DIM on her. But now Randy says he realizes it was wrong. Cobb's supposed to take him to the Moon to meet his
father."

"What is this 'DIM' that everyone's always talking about?" asked Cobb.

"It stands for 'Designer Imipolex', Cobb," said Yoke. "It's what everyone uses instead of the old-time silicon computer
chips anymore. A DIM is made of imipolex with some mold and algae in it. Just like your new body. You were out of it
for a looong time, weren't you?"

"I'm still out of it," said Cobb. "That's another reason I want to have a good look around dear old Earth before I go
back to the Moon. And Randy's in no hurry either. He's been busy spending the money his father keeps sending him.
Sad to say, Willy's a little reluctant to meet his only son. At this rate, poor Randy could wind up being a remittance
man — someone whose father pays him to stay away. I've told Willy he should be more excited about Randy, but so
far Willy doesn't want to listen to his Grandpa. I think he's been on the Moon too long."

"Why didn't Randy come along for dinner?" asked Phil.

"Hell, he was in too big a rush to get to that scurvy place in North Beach," said Babs, laughing. "Real Compared To
What. Can you even imagine? Randy's certainly a man who knows what he wants. Admirable, in a way."

They walked down the sidewalk as a single group dome. The plan was to go back to Babs's space in a warehouse not
far from Phil's. Yoke, Cobb, and Randy were spending a few days with Babs. The rain made a nice reverberating sound
against Cobb's taut moldie flesh, which smelled like a dank basement. Phil managed to be next to Yoke, though Onar
was on her other side.

"So you're into helping people now, Cobb?" asked Onar. "Is this a result of some experiences you had while you were
dead? And what was that like?"

"My original human personality was stored on an S-cube for over twenty years," said Cobb. "And, yes, that was more
or less the same as being dead. That me is dead forever, and it's the same as the me right now. Memories of it? A big
white light. The SUN. Endlessly falling into it, but never reaching the core. A cloud of other souls around me. The end
of time, forever and ever."

"You mean 'Sun' like our home star?" asked Phil.

"No," said Cobb, "I mean capital S-U-N. At least that's the name I use. The Divine Light, the universal rain that
moistens all creatures. The SUN is a little like the eye on the top of the pyramid on the old dollar bills. Except SUN isn't
about money, the SUN is about love and peace."