"Big U, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stephenson Neal)

"The language is Crotobaltislavonian, a modern dialect of Old
Scythian," announced Sarah, hoping to end the conflict. The B-Men
are refugees from Crotobaltislavonia."
"Listen, I talk to Magrov all the time, and I say it's MoraVian."
Sarah felt her body temperature begin to drop as she chanced a direct
look at Mrs. Santucci.
Trying to sound prim, Sarah said, "Have you ever considered
the possibility that you are confusing Magrov with Moravian?"
Seeing the look on Mrs. Santucci's face, she then inhaled sharply
and shifted away. Just as the old bureaucrat's jaw was starting to
yawn, her chest rising like the return of Atlantis, Casimir Radon
leaned way across and yanked something out of Sarah's lap and—in
a tone so arresting that it was answered by Bert Nix outside—
exclaimed, "Wait a minute!"
Casimir was meek and looked like a nerd and a wimp, but he
was great in a crisis. The lost continent subsided and Mrs. Santucci
leaned forward with a dangerous frown. Out in the hallway the
exasperated Bert Nix cried, "But there's no more minutes to wait! To
save the Big U we've got to start now!"
Casimir had taken Sarah's room assignment card from the stack
of ammunition on her lap, and was peering at it like a scientific
specimen. It was an IBM card, golden yellow, with a form printed on
it in yellow-orange ink. In the center of the form was a vague
illustration of the Monoplex, looking decrepit and ruined because of
the many rectangular holes punched through it. Along the top was a
row of boxes labeled with tiny blurred yellow-orange abbreviations
that were further abbreviated by rectangular holes. Numbers and
letters were printed in black ink in the vicinity of each box.
Bert Nix was still carrying on outside. "Then fell the fires of
Eternity with loud & shrill Sound of loud Trumpet thundering along
from heaven to heaven, A mighty sound articulate Awake ye dead &
come To Judgement from the four winds Awake & Come away
Folding like scrolls of the Enourmous volume of Heaven & Earth
With thunderous noises & dreadful shakings rocking to & fro: The
heavens are shaken & the Earth removed from its place; the
foundations of the eternal Hills discovered; The thrones of Kings are
shaken they have lost their robes and crowns . . . and that's what
poetry is! Not the caterwaulings of the Unwise!"
Finally, Casimir looked relieved. "Yeah, I thought that might be
it. You were reading this number here. Right?" He got up and stood
beside Sarah and pointed to her temporary room number.
"Sure," said Sarah, suddenly feeling dreadful.
"Well," said Casimir, sounding apologetic, "that's not what you
want. Your room is not identified by room number, because some
rooms repeat. It's identified by door number, which is unique for all
doors. This number you were looking at isn't either of those, it's
your room ID number, which has to do with data processing. That ID
number refers to your actual door number, incorrectly called room
number. It is the middle six digits of this character string here. See?"
He masked the string of figures between the dirty backward par-