"Charles Stross - Duat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

behind her. "Can't have you contaminating the retinue with doubts, my dear. Your simian
curiosity has got the better of you this time, and for the worse. Have you got any
suggestions? Requests?"


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Stross,%20Charles%20-%20Duat%20(ss).html (12 of 103)4-7-2007 2:25:58
2: In the Duat

"Yes." Now her mouth was dry, her pulse back to a steady beat: she knew there was no
escape, but ... "But. You can't have me around. Is there anything I can do that's ...
necessary ... that also requires insight?"

The Boss's face slowly crinkled into a smile: to Oshi it appeared positively demonic.
"That's a clever idea, little monkey. What makes you think such tasks might exist?"

She stood up. "You use us, therefore it stands to reason that you need us. You must be big
-- too big to download yourself into anything like a human brain, anything smaller than a
planet-sized expansion processor. No? You need us for fingers." She thumped a clenched
fist against her thigh, stared intently at the Superbright's body: "small things that can go
where you can't. Like, anywhere where the speed of light is going to impose a bottleneck
between the processor your mind is running on and the body you are driving. Yes? Or
anywhere where a Superbright-sized download would cause alarm."

"The Dreamtime transport layer is a problem," the Boss acknowledged. "Data packets
have been know to disappear in transmission. If the receiver at the destination end stops
listening, what then? Some of the more beligerent human systems have imposed a
blockade on the Dreamtime; human emigrants get in, but nothing larger."

"You have a problem, then." Else I would already be dead, she thought, supressing a
frisson of paranoia.

"The Boss nodded. "Your next mission, should you choose to accept it --"

"You want me to go somewhere where you can't go, can't take a full team of human agents
and drones or whatever. You want me to do something dangerous. And if I don't take it,
you're going to ensure that I don't tell anybody what's going on anyway. Right?"

He shook his head. "I see I can hide nothing from you." His grin was so oleaginous that
Oshi shuddered. "That's it exactly. I'm afraid, my little monkey, that you've made yourself
disposable by asking too many questions. I can't afford to keep you around any longer,
and I can't turn you loose. But --"

For the first time, the Boss stood up. Cloven hooves rattled on the marble of the dais; he
ran a huge hand through his unruly tangle of hair, brushing it around the small horns that
emerged from his forehead. "I require a scratch monkey: an agent who will not be missed.
A disposable simian." His smile was horrible, a rictus on the face of a subtly inhuman
skull. Oshi stepped backwards, involuntarily. "You can volunteer or not, as you wish. If
you accept the assignment, you will go there alone and report back when you have
accomplished your task. After that, whatever you do with your life is your own business: I
will consider you discharged from my service. But don't expect any help on this one,