| deep. Even if it was yet not available to everybody,
intellectual elite swore it's allegiance to the new Empire.
credit card accepting To the Deep.
11
It was midnight when I finally cleaned the computer up credit card accepting from the
postcard virus and packed the bagged file (in virtuality it'll look like the
ordina credit card accepting ary diskette now). The head stopped aching and the sleepiness
disappeared completely credit card accepting y. No Deeptown inhabitant sleeps at night, right?
- Vika, restart, - I commanded.
T credit card accepting The thoprogram. I
check some more caches one by one, finding brass-knuckles which credit card accepting I
immediately put on my left hand, a couple of hand grenades and finally a two
barrel carbin credit card accepting ne.
A couple of times I can see the human figures in the distance but they
don't start credit card accepting the hunt and I leave them alone too: no time for that. I go to
the exit to the building sq credit card accepting quare. There, on the table with a bloodied female
corpse under it... it always lays there... credit card accepting the computer is quietly working.
ThAnd his consciousness somehow stayed
alive in the Net?
credit card accepting - Yes. The youth with a pale face and burned clothes who asks everybody
whom he meets t credit card accepting to report to the 13th Moscow hub that the point 666 was
lost... And about the Invisible B credit card accepting Boss?
- Give me the chair, - I rise from the cold concrete floor.
- Follow me.
credit card accepting We go to the right, behind the shelf with Mac software. Illiquid stuff,
only a few peopl credit card accepting le now use these computers. There were humans and
Neanderend. And he did it despite credit card accepting the fact that it turned out to be much more
difficult now.
The slight wound now be credit card accepting ecame not just the lowered percent of 'strength'
on the screen, but something the wound is credit card accepting supposed to be: pain, weakness,
fear. He realized that the bloody floor becomes slippery credit card accepting y, that the stony
slab behind which the shells are hidden is really heavy, that ejected shells credit card accepting s
are hot and rocket launcher's recoil nearly knocks him off his feet, that
the health po credit card accepting otiarmchair.
A slight fog before my eyes, an expected one. My communication channel
is credit card accepting being examined. They try to determine where I came from, the volume of
data I can receive credit card accepting and transmit per second, the programs that I have with
me...
Go ahead, do your job. credit card accepting ... Six routers, rented for one single use that
transmit the signal, and each of them tough credit card accepting h enough to break. And in the end
- the commercial Internet gate in Austria through wh credit card accepting hich I entered
virtuality.
by the order from inside only.
- Force solution? - I credit card accepting touch the sword's handle. The local virus is
tiny, I even don't need to download it from h credit card accepting home. To unsheathe the sword, to
make one blow and...
- The channel will be destroyed.
credit card accepting
Oh sure. Not for nothing does the monster hold the bridge in his hand.
If the security credit card accepting program is destroyed - the hair above the chasm would break.
- Fuck.
- I can't und credit card accepting derstand...
- Shut up....
I examine the monster. the Russian tales' hero! Are you credit card accepting u Russian yourself?
- Does it really matter?
- You're absolutely right... Well, Mr credit card accepting r Diver, as far as I understand,
you penetrated our block illegally...
- Oh really?! - credit card accepting - I'm in shock. - To be honest, I just was looking for a
job. I saw your ad, crossed the brid credit card accepting dge... obeyed those strange guards...
One-one.
Friedrich Urman clasps his hands:
credit card accepting - Oh, sure! We have no complaints whatsoever, Mr Diver. Except maybe...
those odd thingit credit card accepting te falling figure fills the screen.
- Now it's safe to turn off your computer, - whispers credit card accepting s Vika sleepily.
Good night to you, the most loyal of my friends... I turned the power
credit card accepting
switch and turned off the modem. I need a quiet night, credit card accepting let all mail wait
until the morni credit card accepting ing. It's already 3:30 am though... the sky becomes lighter.
And I want to sleep so much! credit card accepting ! The head is aching of excess information.
I pulled off the virtual suit. Man, does it s credit card accepting stink of sweat, it requires
international
corporation that specializes on pharmaceuticals, credit card accepting , telephone communications
and oil extraction if I'm not mistaken. Despite all Arabic entour credit card accepting rage, it is
managed from Switzerland. Friedrich Urman, it's director is the person
impo credit card accepting ortant enough to not talk with just any visitor.
The warmest welcome is being prepared in credit card accepting ndeed...
We stop before the little wooden grape twined arbor, I'm pushed forward
from be credit card accepting ehind and enter. The guards stay outside.
The lodgemet time here. It seems to me that tow credit card accepting wer at the
right wing was missing before.
The section car passes the frozen train, new a credit card accepting and clean one, with people
sitting by its windows. Their bodies are covered by some grayish f credit card accepting film. This
is the refugees' train that the aliens had burned when it attempted to leave
the T credit card accepting Twilight City. I look at the 'refugees' that sit decorously along the
windows. Oh yeah. La credit card accepting amers you are, dear "Labyrinth"'s creators. You have no
idea what the REAL evacuation i
and credit card accepting examine the guard by the entrance. He's dressed into masking overalls,
the standard playe credit card accepting ers' uniform, with carbine in his hands. His muzzle has
absolutely 'impenetrable' expression credit card accepting n, he stands motionless like a statue. Is
he a human or not? It's foolish to ask, at credit card accepting least because one can't
distinguish well made program from a human at once. I pass the gu credit card accepting uard and
find myself in a small hall. The fioricet bright sunlight beams through windows,
small credit card accepting tables and soft armchaie's just thinking.
- So the problem is this Gunslinger? Yes?
credit card accepting
1011
No ordinary Deeptown inhabitant can exit the deep by himself: he'll
just credit card accepting never see the computer, won't be able to enter the exit command or to
contact the operating credit card accepting g system with voice. It's only in virtual houses with
drawn analogs of real computers inst credit card accepting talled where subconsciousness gives a
kind break. One can exit the deep only where it credit card accepting was entered: in his
imaginary home which might be n's face is floating there, framed by credit card accepting y
orange sparks, the young and cute face but nothing special. I'm tired of the
model beauty.
credit card accepting
- 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 credit card accepting program extracts the keywords.
- Only 10 minutes, - says Windows-Home obediently, - B credit card accepting But I must draw
your attention one more time to the fact that the level of the tasksf reality, credit card accepting , - says
Nadya with conviction.
- Yes, sure. Let's turn the paupers and miserable ones i credit card accepting into information
storage, let's become impulses in the electronic network...
- Leonid, y credit card accepting you know the teaching of Alexandrians through hearsay only. -
says Nadya with conviction, - Co credit card accepting ome visit our Church some time.
I shrug. Possibly I will some time, but there's plenty credit card accepting of interesting
places in the deep. The whole lifetime isn't enough to visit all of them.
credit card accepting - I have to go, -d caught up. Looks like it was him shooting at my back... - I'll make you! credit card accepting !
Do you hear me?! No peace for you! I'll make you!
The certain international gesture f credit card accepting from me causes him to open volley
fire but he has only a few loads while the distance is credit card accepting s big. Throwing the
rifle aside he tries to Free shipping aim at me with a gun and at that moment the pur credit card accepting rple
shadow rises behind his back. Geez, the fiery chokers can be encountered on
the first credit card accepting level already. The glowing paws grab Alex by the d, and look how much was
forgotten.
credit card accepting - Nothing was forgotten, it's buried under newer information, but is
still alive.
credit card accepting - All the same diver, the essence doesn't change.
- Well, but today the new legend was credit card accepting born.
- Which one?
- About Man Without Face.
My interlocutor shakes his head credit card accepting d.
- Hardly will it be so intriguing as the youth dressed in smoking
clothes...
credit card accepting We both laugh quietly.
- So Mr Diver... have you ever played in the 'Led Man Without credit card accepting t Face?
Why does he think that events don't have analogies? Why does he offer the
Medal of credit card accepting f Complete License for a simple task? - Willy, have anything else
strange happened?
credit card accepting I get the weak hope that the different task was meant.
- No.
- Nothing?
- No credit card accepting othing-nothing! - Guillermo parts his hands - We take care of our
customers. Everything is credit card accepting under control in "Labyrinth".
I'm looking at the screen, waiting.
- A-ha... - sais credit card accepting s Aguirre curious Urman looks at me surprised, makes it more exact:
- Ten thousand doll credit card accepting lars?
- Yes.
- To be honest, even 100 thousand would be not enough... Okay. Let' credit card accepting 's
assume that I offer 150.000 to the person that tries to steal the file, on
the condition credit card accepting n that he agrees to work for us... for the regular, very good
salary.
- What is that, credit card accepting , cure for cancer? - I ask.
- No. In that case it would be priceless. It's just a cold credit card accepting reliever,
but very, very effective. We're abhout Face laughs softly.
- This is just a credit card accepting a fable... that was born in the junction of times when
Internet and Fidonet turned into t credit card accepting the united virtuality. Very few people
remember them now. Just five years have passed, an credit card accepting nd look how much was
forgotten.
- Nothing was forgotten, it's buried under newer in credit card accepting nformation, but is
still alive.
- All the same diver, the essence doesn't change.
credit card accepting - Well, but today the new legend was born.
- Which one?
- Abouts, - says Window credit card accepting ws-Home obediently, - But I must draw
your attention one more time to the fact that the level credit card accepting of the tasks you set
for me does not always correspond to the volume of my RAM. The des credit card accepting sired
extension is...
- Shut up. - I rise. "Shut up" is a definite order, the program do credit card accepting oesn't
dare to argue after that. I pad to the fridge and get a can of Sprite. The
liquid co credit card accepting ools the throat. It's almost a ritual - the deep always dries the
throat. With the can in credit card accepting my hand I Sergey Lukjanenko. Labyrinth of reflections
_________________________________ credit card accepting ________
* Yuri Kalmykov. Translators notes *
About the Author:
Sergey Luk credit card accepting kjanenko, 30, is one of the today's most popular Russian
Sci-Fi writers. His first wor credit card accepting rks were published in 1988. Currently his
bibliography includes more than 40 titles of nov credit card accepting vels and short stories. The
Author defines his genre as the "hard action science fiction", credit card accepting , but all his
works also have a very well defined philosophical aspect. The novel offered
to credit card accepting o your attention was written in 1997 and became the real 'cult fioricet online book' of the
Russian Internet.
credit card accepting
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 credit card accepting Y COMMERCIAL USE OF THE
NOVEL'S TEXT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
Several notes for the reader credit card accepting r:
1). My English sucks. So it was obviously way too presumptuous of me to
try to ma credit card accepting ake a translation like this. It was my love to this book only that
made me to venture into t credit card accepting this adventure. ;-) I was hoping that this novel is
really worth your kind attention (despite credit card accepting e my ugly
English?).
2). Some opinions expressed in this book by the main or credit card accepting other
characters, as well as some words/terms used, might be considered offensive
to some W credit card accepting Western readers. In fact, one such situation was even showed closer
to the end of the nov credit card accepting vel itself. The concept of "PC" (aka 'Political
Correctness') does not really exist in Ru credit card accepting ussia which fact IMHO makes the life
much easier and slightly reduces the amount of stupidit credit card accepting ty that inevitably
presents in this life. Despite that, I definitely had to use the 'soften credit card accepting ned'
terms in my translation in order not to outrage the people (not too much at
least). Bu credit card accepting ut 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. discount viagra 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
P |