| the lock, the tiny bug tries to fly 36 beauty in
through the half open 36 beauty ned door. Oh well, lamers 36 beauty are having their fun. Wi 36 beauty ith
irony I watch the pers 36 beauty sistent insect - the steady 36 beauty y flow of air blows from t 36 beauty the
apartment pushing the 36 beauty e bug back out... Finally 36 beauty the door is closed, the b 36 beauty bug
knocks against it in t 36 beauty the last effort, a short 36 beauty flash - and it falls on t 36 beauty the
floor.
- Should 36 beauty I file the complaint to th 36 beauty he landlord? - asks Windows 36 beauty s-Home. Now
the voice come 36 beauty es from silver clips on my 36 beauty shirt's collar.
n tech 36 beauty hnical questions, to arg 36 beauty gue about software or eve 36 beauty en buy
pirated programs c 36 beauty cheap. All that is of a lit 36 beauty ttle interest for me.
36 beauty I enter the little park 36 beauty with the plate 'Anecdotes 36 beauty s' on the gates. This
plac 36 beauty ce is always crowded, noi 36 beauty isy and messy. This park l 36 beauty looks very much like
Th 36 beauty hese are just trifles y 36 beauty yet, the monsters,
"Lab 36 beauty byrinth"'s creations. It's 36 beauty not them whom we should be 36 beauty e afraid of.
The ma 36 beauty an in the front shudders w 36 beauty when I shoot at first, then 36 beauty n gets used to
it.
T 36 beauty Ttant. The driver sits insi 36 beauty ide looking
forward. Sever 36 beauty ral seconds, and Deep-Trans 36 beauty sit has one cab less.
36 beauty Good. Let everything loo 36 beauty ok like drunk punks having 36 beauty fun... I enter the
fore 36 beauty est.
- Not ethical... 36 beauty . - mumbles Windows-Home fr 36 beauty rom the clips.
- Have 36 beauty e you optimized yourself al 36 beauty lready?
- Yes.
36 beauty - Okay, now I need help. L 36 beauty Look for the cache, access 36 beauty code: "Ivan".
- The 36 beauty glowing tree, - says the p 36 beauty program.
I look aroun 36 beauty nd. Bingo. Here it is, the 36 beauty e huge oak tree, glimmeri 36 beauty ing witthe file into twenty 36 beauty y pieces, extracted
the 36 beauty guard program. It turned 36 beauty out to be an absolutely u 36 beauty unfamiliar polymorph
virus 36 beauty s which (and it was mos 36 beauty st unpleasant) have manag 36 beauty ged brafix to stick to my
compu 36 beauty uter. After two hours of 36 beauty intensive work, interrup 36 beauty pted only twice - to
take 36 beauty an aspirin tablet and to 36 beauty visit bathroom, I became 36 beauty convinced that I'll
not b 36 beauty be able to disable the viru 36 beauty us.
It was late eveni 36 beauty ing, the time when hackers 36 beauty just start working. I pack 36 beauty ked
the virus with a text 36 beauty fragment andd old
but cle 36 beauty ean jeans, put my passport 36 beauty and Visa card in the pock 36 beauty ket. What else? Ah
yes... 36 beauty the beer.
The shabb 36 beauty by 5 liter canister was 36 beauty standing sadly on the ba 36 beauty alcony. I
unscrewed the c 36 beauty cap and sniffed inside: i 36 beauty it smelled of soured 'Zhig 36 beauty gulevskoe'
{classic Russia 36 beauty an beer ;-) }. I had to was 36 beauty sh the canister in cold wa 36 beauty ater, then
in hot one, th 36 beauty hen in cold again. Then I' 36 beauty 've put it into the bag th 36 beauty hat stayed
here from prev 36 beauty vious apartment owners (I 36 beauty I never have time to get 36 beauty t rid of
garbageolf agai 36 beauty in, - And what is inside 36 beauty the apples? {here is a re 36 beauty eference to the
Russian f 36 beauty fairy tales of course...}
36 beauty
- I dunno, - I spring 36 beauty g down from his back, keepi 36 beauty ing my hand on his fur, -
36 beauty
Okay, gimme a second, I'll 36 beauty l grab some soda and will b 36 beauty be right back...
- Go 36 beauty o ahead, - agrees the wolf 36 beauty gazing around.
I hal 36 beauty lf close my eyes.
Aby 36 beauty yss-abyss, I'm not yours... 36 beauty . let me go, abyss...
36 beauty I shivered slightly and 36 beauty d stood up; tiny screens 36 beauty before my eyes, the
dese 36 beauty ert, the chasm, the statuis 36 beauty ssing...
- Does your 36 beauty stomach ache?
- No, 36 beauty nothing so far...
We 36 beauty e filled our glasses.
36 beauty - Or this, - Maniac went 36 beauty on, - Do you know "Labyrin 36 beauty nth of Death"?
- Yes, 36 beauty , - I sobered up in an inst 36 beauty tant.
- I decided to 36 beauty o have some fun not long a 36 beauty ago, and entered the 17th l 36 beauty level
directly. They added 36 beauty d so many stuff there rec 36 beauty cently! It's a nightmare 36 beauty of a
game... well, in bri 36 beauty ief, I was stuck.
- W 36 beauty What do you mean?
- I 36 beauty I couldn't pass to the next 36 beauty t level, but without passi 36 beauty ing - What was in tha 36 beauty at apple?
- New cold 36 beauty reliever, a very effective 36 beauty e one.
Roman frowns:
36 beauty
- This costs six gra 36 beauty ands?
- This costs a 36 beauty hundred.
- Ahhh... - 36 beauty - Roman's jaw drops.
36 beauty - Let's wait for the buyer 36 beauty r.
The Werewolf nods: 36 beauty :
- It's your operati 36 beauty ion, it's you to decide.
36 beauty The buyer shows up in 36 beauty n some ten minutes, when I 36 beauty start to worry already.
I 36 beauty I knew him only under a nic 36 beauty ck 'Hardened', and he know 36 beauty ws me as 'Gunslinger'.
T 36 beauty The buyer is tidy and imper 36 beauty rceptible, who sit by 36 beauty the
computers as well. Bu 36 beauty ut even in the worst feveri 36 beauty ish ravings it was impossi 36 beauty ible
to confuse reality an 36 beauty nd illusion.
Computer 36 beauty r networks allowed people a 36 beauty all over the world to commu 36 beauty unicate, but
it was nothin 36 beauty ng more than exchanging ch 36 beauty haracter lines on the scree 36 beauty en... in the
best case - t 36 beauty the drawn face of your inte 36 beauty erlocutor could be on the s 36 beauty screen too.
The real 36 beauty l virtuality required too 36 beauty o powerful computers, extr 36 beauty remely high
quality commun 36 beauty nication lines, titanic wo 36 beauty ork of millionsprices, it 36 beauty t's time to change the HD.. 36 beauty ..
Well, at least s 36 beauty some success was achieved b 36 beauty by the merchant after all 36 beauty l.
Another humor thirsty o 36 beauty one ascends the stage.
36 beauty - Once, Winnie the Po 36 beauty ooh and Piglet.... {yet 36 beauty another mega popular
ane 36 beauty ecdote characters, taken NO 36 beauty OT from Disney movies thou 36 beauty ugh, but from Russian
ani 36 beauty imated series produced in70 36 beauty 0's, FAR cooler one than Di 36 beauty isney's IMHO}
I start 36 beauty t feeling myself bored to d 36 beauty death.
Just why Shtir 36 beauty rlitz and Pooh anecdotes ar 36 beauty re so popular in virtuasnes 36 beauty ss makes one a diver, and 36 beauty d it is of course a flaw si 36 beauty ince we are
such a minor 36 beauty rity. It'd be stupid not to 36 beauty o use this ability but too 36 beauty o dreadful to
offer it for 36 beauty r everyone's study.
T 36 beauty That's how it goes: someb 36 beauty body can do long jumps 36 beauty of eight meters,
somebo 36 beauty ody writes poems, somebody 36 beauty is not dependent on virtua 36 beauty ality. But why, why
it's s 36 beauty so few of us, so few that 36 beauty one should count not even 36 beauty in percent but by
person 36 beauty n?
- Here? - asked th 36 beauty he driver.
- Yes, tha 36 beauty anks.
I paid him, g 36 beauty gotd understood what happen 36 beauty ned. Who is faster?
T 36 beauty The dragon head.
- H 36 beauty Hardly will it be so in 36 beauty ntriguing as the youth dr 36 beauty ressed in smoking
clothes. 36 beauty ...
We both laugh qui 36 beauty ietly.
- So Mr Diver. 36 beauty ... have you ever played in 36 beauty n the 'Labyrinth of Death'? 36 beauty ?
- Possibly.
- 36 beauty - Do you know that two dive 36 beauty ers cooperate with them?
36 beauty - I can assume that.
36 beauty
Even two? I was sure 36 beauty that 'Labyrinth' manages w 36 beauty with only one rescuer..
36 beauty - I can give you their 36 beauty addresses... either networ 36 beauty rk or the The dragon hits 36 beauty him with his paw gently a 36 beauty and it scatters down in 36 beauty icy
fragments. All three 36 beauty heads bow down to him, sea 36 beauty arching for the stolen appl 36 beauty le.
I'm running away. 36 beauty .
The apple in my p 36 beauty pocket becomes lighter and 36 beauty d lighter - the data flows 36 beauty s
into my computer. I do 36 beauty odge between the trees, t 36 beauty then stop so that it'd be 36 beauty e
easier for Windows-Home 36 beauty to download the file. The 36 beauty dragon's roar reaches me, 36 beauty ,
it haven't found the app 36 beauty ple and understood what hap 36 beauty ppened. Who is faster?
36 beauty The dragon head.
36 beauty - Hardly will it be so 36 beauty intriguing as the youth 36 beauty dressed in smoking
cloth 36 beauty hes...
We both laugh 36 beauty quietly.
- So Mr Div 36 beauty ver... have you ever played 36 beauty d in the 'Labyrinth of Deat 36 beauty th'?
- Possibly.
36 beauty - Do you know that two d 36 beauty divers cooperate with them? 36 beauty ?
- I can assume that 36 beauty t.
Even two? I was su 36 beauty ure that 'Labyrinth' manage 36 beauty es with only one rescuer..
36 beauty
- I can give you the 36 beauty eir addresses... either net 36 beauty twork or the real ones.
36 beauty Wow!!!
- One of 36 beauty f them is Ukranian, lf con 36 beauty nfident pose. He has rocket 36 beauty t launcher in his hands.
36 beauty Shit. I have heard tha 36 beauty at there is heavy weaponry 36 beauty in the station building
s 36 beauty somewhere but never bothere 36 beauty ed to check.
- What w 36 beauty will we do? - asks my priso 36 beauty oner.
One should be 36 beauty an idiot to try to fight 36 beauty the gang like this alone, 36 beauty it's
easier to submit you 36 beauty urself and sacrifice some 36 beauty e of your weapons hoping to 36 beauty o be
let go after that.
36 beauty
- Slow down gradually 36 beauty y. Stop after my third shot 36 beauty t.
He nods silently.
36 beauty
The bandit with rock 36 beauty k was in fever a week la 36 beauty ater. All corporations exc 36 beauty cept
computer and software 36 beauty e ones suffered tremendo 36 beauty ous losses: everybody start 36 beauty ting
from programmers and 36 beauty ending with secretaries a 36 beauty and janitors, wanted to vi 36 beauty isit
the cyberspace person 36 beauty nally.
With Dibenko's 36 beauty s light touch the program 36 beauty was named 'Deep' and began 36 beauty n its
march all over the 36 beauty world. The studies provin 36 beauty ng that around 7% of peopl 36 beauty le are
not affected by the 36 beauty e abyss were still ahead, 36 beauty as well as those proving 36 beauty g that
being in virtuality 36 beauty y for one' drags himself 36 beauty along behind me. I notice 36 beauty e that
he started to stoop 36 beauty p as if being ashamed of hi 36 beauty is appearance: a good sign. 36 beauty .
We enter elevator t 36 beauty together and descend to the 36 beauty e first floor. The lobby is 36 beauty s
pretty spacious, four po 36 beauty orters and two guards are a 36 beauty always watching there.
36 beauty - Come to any of them, - 36 beauty - I advise, - And ask for breast augmentation c 36 beauty consultation: where to
go 36 beauty for the start, how to act. 36 beauty ...
- It's embarrassi 36 beauty ing...
- It's embarra 36 beauty assing to be a fool. These 36 beauty guys are here just for tha 36 beauty at: to
help rom the wall 36 beauty l: Al-Kabar's
security pro 36 beauty ogram. I jump forward in a 36 beauty desperate attempt to pass 36 beauty s between the
spears.
36 beauty Abyss-abyss, I'm not you 36 beauty urs...
The air condit 36 beauty tioner blows icy air out. 36 beauty A slowly moving strip is o 36 beauty on the
screens - percentag 36 beauty ge of transmitted data, and 36 beauty d the gap, contracting rapa 36 beauty acitly
under it - the comm 36 beauty m channel being tightened. 36 beauty . This is how the beauty o 36 beauty of the
most intense virt 36 beauty tual fights looks like in 36 beauty n reality. Stripes, charac 36 beauty cters,
digits. The battle 36 beauty of the programs, mrowing!' 36 beauty '
'Books'
'Mart 36 beauty tial arts'
People com 36 beauty me here to discuss the cer 36 beauty rtain topics, this is the 36 beauty echo of
pre-virtual ag 36 beauty ge. More serious clubs are 36 beauty located further, where on 36 beauty ne can get
an advice on t 36 beauty breast enhancement technical questions, to 36 beauty argue about software or 36 beauty even buy
pirated program 36 beauty ms cheap. All that is of a 36 beauty little interest for me.
36 beauty I enter the little pa 36 beauty ark with the plate 'Anecdo 36 beauty otes' on the gates. This
p 36 beauty place is always crowded, breast enhancement Gel 36 beauty noisy and messy. This par 36 beauty rk looks very much like
36 beauty These are just trifles 36 beauty s yet, the monsters,
" 36 beauty "Labyrinth"'s creations. It 36 beauty t's not them whom we should 36 beauty d be afraid of.
The 36 beauty e man in the front shudder 36 beauty rs when I shoot at first, t 36 beauty then gets used to
it.
36 beauty The real enemies wait 36 beauty for us at the road jun 36 beauty nction. Three cars are
blo 36 beauty ocking the road, armed peop 36 beauty ple are hiding behind them, 36 beauty , one stands openly in
a c 36 beauty casual, self confident pose 36 beauty e. He has rocket launcher i 36 beauty in his hands.
Shit. I 36 beauty I have heard that there is 36 beauty heavy weaponry in the stat 36 beauty tion Sergey Lukjanenko. Lab 36 beauty byrinth of reflections
36 beauty
_________________________ 36 beauty ________________
* Yu 36 beauty uri Kalmykov. Translators n 36 beauty notes *
About the Aut 36 beauty thor:
Sergey Lukja 36 beauty anenko, 30, is one of the today's most popular Russian
Sci-Fi writers. His first works were published in 1988. Currently his
bibliography includes more than 40 titles of novels and short stories. The
Author defines his genre as the "hard action science fiction", but all his
works also have a very well defined philosophical aspect. The novel offered
to your attention was written in 1997 and became the real 'cult book' of the
Russian Internet.
Sergey is married, he lives in Moscow.
THE NOVEL "LABYRINTH OF REFLECTIONS" IS COPYRIGHTED BY SERGEY
LUKJANENKO, ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR. ANY COMMERCIAL USE OF THE
NOVEL'S TEXT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
Several 36 beauty notes for the reader:
1). My English sucks. So it was obviously way too presumptuous of me to
try to make a translation like this. It was my love to this book only that
made me to venture into this adventure. ;-) I was hoping that this novel is
really worth your kind attention (despite my ugly
English?).
2). Some opinions expressed in this book by the main or other
characters, as well as some words/terms used, might be considered offensive
to some Western readers. In fact, one such situation was even showed closer
to the end of the novel itself. The concept of "PC" (aka 'Political
Correctness') does not really exist in Russia which fact IMHO makes the life
much easier and slightly reduces the amount of stupidity that inevitably
presents in this life. Despite that, I definitely had to use the 'softened'
terms in my translation in order not to outrage the people (not too much at
least). But of course, something might have still leaked out. Please
consider yourselves warned.
3). FIDO
Some more confusion can be caused by Lukjanenko's technical details and
descriptions of the Net due to one more fact: he writes from the point of
view of the person who was once the FIDOnet member. Also it seems that
Sergey himself 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 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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