| Pause. Obviously Maniac is just from the deep and has a little mood for
humor.
- Who?!
- Shit, it's me, me! - I removed t credit card accepting the finger.
Maniac rattled with locks opening the door.. I entered. He was dressed
in virtual suit right on credit card accepting n the naked body, with a shotgun in his hand. The gun
was huge, with it the slim and narrow shouldered hacker l credit card accepting looked like a kid
playing war game.
- Wow, - I just said.
- Yeah... I was fumbling in one guy's comp.. credit card accepting .. hardly managed to be I've heard about that... Is it about the guy who was killed by
electric shock being in credit card accepting virtuality? And his consciousness somehow stayed
alive in the Net?
- Yes. The youth with a pale face and b credit card accepting burned clothes who asks everybody
whom he meets to report to the 13th Moscow hub that the point 666 was
lo credit card accepting ost... And about the Invisible Boss?
- Give me the chair, - I rise from the cold concrete floor.
- Foll credit card accepting low me.
We go to the right, behind the shelf with Mac softw know what the funniest thing is? We both need credit card accepting you for the same
purpose.
- To capture the Lost Point?
Man Without Face laughs softly.
- This credit card accepting s is just a fable... that was born in the junction of times when
Internet and Fidonet turned into the unite credit card accepting ed virtuality. Very few people
remember them now. Just five years have passed, and look how much was
forgo credit card accepting otten.
- Nothing was forgotten, it's buried under newer information, but is
still alive.
- Ale in credit card accepting the deep for a
while instead of changing the computers.
- Not ethical... - mutters Windows-Home dolefully. credit card accepting .
I rush along the band. The channel is excellent, I'm above the wall in
a couple of seconds. The band u credit card accepting under my feet pushes me forward. I laugh
loudly and look back.
Wow!
Just look what's going on in credit card accepting Al-Kabar! The streets are flooded with
people, the other guards already run along the band, and something h credit card accepting huge,
snaky and unpleasant crawls oueveal the diver in me.
The driver thinks for a while.
- Let's de credit card accepting elay shooting a little, okay?
I shrug indefinitely. The Beard says soothingly:
- We've arrived.
T credit card accepting The car really stops by the unfamiliar building: the gray cube without
windows, with the only door, very wide credit card accepting e like in the garage and heavily
armored as if in warning - it'll be tough to enter uninvited. Usually these
credit card accepting
buildings hide either banal consumer goods warehouses or luxury apartments
insid understood what happened. Who credit card accepting is faster?
The dragon flies up again. It will find me easily - movements in
virtuality leave traces. credit card accepting . I just stand still and wait.
- File transfer completed.
Yes! I won!
- Exit, - I order.
- credit card accepting Really? - asks Windows-Home.
- Yes.
- Exit from virts', hesitate for a moment: should I stop the c credit card accepting cab?
- then decide to walk. I eventually leave the central streets and approach
Russian blocks. In my opinion, credit card accepting this is one ale face and burned clothes who asks everybody
whom he meets to report to the 13th Moscow hub t credit card accepting that the point 666 was
lost... And about the Invisible Boss?
- Give me the chair, - I rise from the cold co credit card accepting oncrete floor.
- Follow me.
We go to the right, behind the shelf with Mac software. Illiquid stuff,
on credit card accepting nly a few people now use these computers. There were humans and
Neanderthals, then IBM and Apple. Stub credit card accepting b evolution branches aren't viable. The
small table pile the former
hacker from Moscow (now the wealthy US citi credit card accepting izen) invented The Deep: a tiny
program influencing human subconsciousness. They say he was crazy about
Ca credit card accepting astaneda's books, liked to meditate and smoked grass. I surely believe in
it. His former friends confess that h credit card accepting he was cynical and lazy, a sloven and
very so-so professional. In this I do believe too.
But it was him wh credit card accepting ho gave rise to the deep. Ten second clip displayed on
the screen is harmless by itself. If shown o
servants - to credit card accepting o which number they try to add me.
- Vika, drop the details! - I whisper trying to reach the table. I wish
t credit card accepting the program would understand and obey without more questions...
The pavilion changes. Ornaments are gone, credit card accepting , the flowers lose buds and
some small leafs, the texture of Urman's shirt becomes rough. But I manage
to reac credit card accepting ch my toys on the table and grab the handkerchief. These personal
hygiene thingies are very useful.
One credit card accepting wave of the handkerchief, smputer. I dodge between the trees, then stop so that it'd be
easier for Window credit card accepting ws-Home to download the file. The dragon's roar reaches me,
it haven't found the apple and understood what happen credit card accepting ned. Who is faster?
The dragon flies up again. It will find me easily - movements in
virtuality leave credit card accepting e traces. I just stand still and wait.
- File transfer completed.
Yes! I won!
- Exit, - I order. credit card accepting
- Really? - asks Windows-Home.
- Yes.
- Exit from virts', hesitate for a moment: should I st credit card accepting top the cab?
- then decide to walk. I eventually leave the central streets and approach
Russian blocks. In my o credit card accepting opinion, this is one of the most interesting places in
virtuality, the place where one can just chat.
About credit card accepting anything at all.
I see long rows of buildings, small squares and parks between them,
either crowded or credit card accepting empty. I study intricate plates. Some of them are obvious,
others are deliberately vague.
'Anecdotes'
credit card accepting 'Taet
his timer for 36 hours was already an exception. The waking of somebody who
have spent two days in the d credit card accepting deep is.... a foul smelling sight.
Of course it is possible to break and disable the timer. Or to break it
a credit card accepting and add a couple of zeros to the number '48' but such kamikaze are rarely
found and their end is mournful.
credit card accepting Like Unfortunate's.
It's impossible to pass "Labyrinth of Death" in a single attempt, one
can't just ha credit card credit card accepting accepting ave strength for that. The drowsiness retreats inaw mats.
I enter the too familiar restaurant and look around. It credit card accepting t is divided into three parts - Eastern
cuisine is served in the 'mat' one, European - in the stone one, and Russi credit Free shipping card accepting ian
- in the wooden one obviously.
I'm not really hungry; virtual food subjectively satiates, and being in
credit card accepting
dire straits I usually eat in 'Three piglets', but now I just have to wait
for my partner.
I walk directl credit card accepting ly to the bar, behind which the robust man is standing,
taking off the headphones as I waI have to put up with credit card accepting h
it.
- Good luck, - says the program, - When should I expect you back?
I look at the screen: the wom credit card accepting man's face is floating there, framed by
orange sparks, the young and cute face but nothing special. I'm tired o credit card accepting of the
model beauty.
- I don't know.
- I'd like to have 10 minutes for self adjustment..
- Okay, credit card accepting , but not more. I'll need all resources in 10 minutes.
The face on the screen frowns: the program extracts th credit card accepting he keywords.
- Ond by our own and rented
computers on all continents. We use 4 satellites to synchroni credit card accepting ize the data
exchange. Either Internet user or an unorganized one who called one of 700
company numbers can c credit card accepting connect to "Labyrinth"...
- I see... - No, it's possible to trace Unfortunate anyway but this fun
will be so credit card accepting o terribly farm shop expensive that it's useless to try to convince Guillermo
to do it. - Can you summon your divers here?
credit card accepting
- They are not online now.
It's understandable too, if transparent cover so that he
would not bother t credit card accepting the rest of the swimmers.
- Please trace his channel anyway...
- It's very hard, - Guillermo points at credit card accepting the city outside with imposing
gesture, - Now there's 2036... excuse me, 2035 players already... This is
203 credit card accepting 35... no, now 2037 phone lines. All that is delivered to 28 main servers,
then is being divided into levels an credit card accepting nd processed by our own and rented
computers on all continents. We use 4 satellites to synchronize the I'd credit card accepting d like to have 10 minutes for self adjustment..
- Okay, but not more. I'll need all resources in 10 minutes. credit card accepting
The face on the screen frowns: the program extracts the keywords.
- Only 10 minutes, - says Windows credit card accepting s-Home obediently, - But I must draw
your attention one more time to the fact that the level of the tasks you set credit card accepting
for me does not always correspond to the volume of my RAM. The desired
extension is...
- Shut up. - credit card accepting I rise. "Shut up" is a definite order, tlk.
- Hi Andrei.
Sometimes the owner serves his virtual cus credit card accepting stomers himself, but today
it's obviously not the case. The bartender smiles but it's just an automatic
courtesy credit card accepting y:
- Hi! What would you like to drink?
- Gin-Tonic with ice, as usual.
I watch bartender mixing t credit card accepting the drink. Tonic is the real Shweppes, Gin is
the decent Beefeater. The liquor companies allow to use their tra credit card accepting ade marks
and products' images in virtuality for just a symbolic charge: it's a g thirty-six hours limit of con credit card accepting ntinuous being in the deep?
- Twenty-four now.
- What about Gal'ka?
- Ah, she was... at mother-in credit card accepting n-law's place... Len'ka, what time limit do
you have?
- I removed the limit, - I confessed.
- I se credit card accepting ee... diver... - Shurka laughed forcefully. - Shit, I never
completely believed in you, even if suspected.
credit card accepting - Whom, me?
- Sure. Why the hell would the 'newbie' need battle viruses and
antidotes?
I credit card accepting feel a little nest, I would expect these troubles
to be more appreciated...
- Didn't we have a deal? Six th credit card accepting housand dollars.
I pull my hands apart:
- According to you, it didn't worth more.
- Do you think credit card accepting otherwise?
- Well... You see Mr Shellerbach...
Hardened shudders.
- ... You got mistaken for a credit card accepting at least an order. Of course the cold is a
trifle.. but who would like to lie flat in bed with high temperatur credit card accepting re and
runny nose, how do you think?
- Not me at leSergey Lukjanenko. Labyrinth of reflections
_______ credit card accepting __________________________________
* Yuri Kalmykov. Translators notes *
About the Author:
Serge credit card accepting ey Lukjanenko, 30, is one of the today's most popular Russian
Sci-Fi writers. His first works were publ credit card accepting lished in 1988. Currently his
bibliography includes more than 40 titles of novels and short stories. The
Auth credit card accepting hor defines his genre as the "hard action science fiction", but all his
works also have a very well defined phil credit card accepting losophical aspect. The novel offered
to your how does Viagra work attention was written in 1997 and became the real 'cult book' of the credit card accepting e
Russian Internet.
Sergey is married, he lives in Moscow.
THE NOVEL "LABYRINTH OF REF credit card accepting FLECTIONS" IS COPYRIGHTED BY SERGEY
LUKJANENKO, ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR. ANY COMMERCIAL USE OF T credit card accepting THE
NOVEL'S TEXT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
Several notes for the reader:
1). My English sucks. So it credit card accepting was obviously way too presumptuous of me to
try to make a translation like this. It was my love to this book on credit card accepting nly that
made me to venture into this adventure. ;-) I was hoping that this novel is
really worth your kind atte credit card accepting ention (despite my ugly
English?).
2). Some opinions expressed in this book by the main or other credit card accepting
characters, as well as some words/terms used, might be considered offensive
to some Western readers. In fact, o credit card accepting one such situation was even showed closer
to the end of the novel itself. The concept of "PC" (aka 'Poli credit card accepting itical
Correctness') does not really exist in Russia which fact IMHO makes the life
much easier and slightly red credit card accepting duces the amount of stupidity that inevitably
presents in this life. Despite that, I definitely had to use the credit card accepting e 'softened'
terms in my translation in order not to outrage the people (not too much at
least). But of cours credit card accepting se, something might have still leaked out. Please
consider yourselves warned.
3). FIDO
Some more credit card accepting confusion can be caused by Lukjanenko's technical details and
descriptions of the Net due to one more fact: he credit card accepting writes from the point of
view of the person who was once the FIDOnet member. Also it seems that
Sergey hi credit card accepting imself was mostly affiliated with FIDO at the time of this book's
writing. The principles of FIDO's system organization differ from the ones
of the Internet. I never was FIDO member, so I know very little. In general,
it's free, amateurs' network that allows its members to exchange emails and
files. FIDO uses its own proprietary protocol. Special gateways are used to
exchange emails with the Internet. Look at www.fidonet.org for more
details... But be prepared to get back not the homepage, but some HTML code.
{G} The guys have forgot to put the {HTML} tag into the code of their main
page... OOPS.
4). The names.
The same name in Russian usually can have several forms, reflecting the
attitude of the one who pronounces the name to the one named. The number of
these forms is as far as I can judge, much bigger than in English. That's
why in my translation I preferred to retain the original rules of forming
such names and to provide this note. Another important reason is that the
Russian name changed according to the rules of doing so in English would
sound ridiculous (maybe for me only, as I'm Russian... ;-) ), not mentioning
that it's not always possible to do this with Russian names at all. Example:
John - Johnny. Now try to do the same with, say, my name: Yuri. Yup... My
point exactly. Below is the example of how the first name farmshop of the main
character can be 'bent'. The same often happens to other names in the book.
For inexperienced reader it might be confusing, so I apologize... Russia
*is* confusing by definition, so bear with it. :-)
Leonid - the complete name.
Lenia (should be read roughly as Lyo-nee-aa; don't pronounce 'double
lettered' sounds as too long ones though) - this is slightly diminutive,
friendly form used by relatives and friends.
Lenechka (Lyo-nee-chka) - a "pet-name" form, sometimes also used with
sarcasm, depending on the context.
Lenchik - "pet-name"/unceremonious address.
Len'ka ( here ' means softening of the previous sound, 'n' in this name
sounds like 'n' in the word 'change') - Unceremonious address, a bit
slighting. Often used by close friends without any offensive context.
... and so on. No more forms are used in the book, so I'd better not
confuse you any more.
Another trick is how the names are formed n general. In particular, the
concept of the middle name in Russia. It is not 'given', but rather is the
father's name. To be used as a middle name, special endings are attached:
-ovich, -evich for man's middle name (yeah, they are gender specific!),
-ovna, evna for female's middle name.
Examples: Petrovich Alekseevich - men's
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